Intrauterine insemination as treatment for antisperm antibodies in the female

Abstract

Ninety-one women with long-standing infertility in the presence of humoral antisperm antibodies (ASA) underwent 473 cycles of intrauterine insemination of washed sperm (IUI), resulting in 26 pregnancies. Nine pregnancies were achieved in 67 women who underwent 285 IUI during unstimulated cycles (13% pregnancy rate; 3% pregnancy/cycles of treatment). Twenty women underwent 86 IUI after clomiphene citrate (CC) stimulation, resulting in 6 pregnancies (30%; 7% per cycle), while 28 underwent 102 cycles of IUI after human menopausal gonadotropins (hMG) stimulation, resulting in 11 pregnancies (39%; 11% per cycle). Twenty-one of the 26 pregnancies (81%) were achieved in the first 2 IUI cycles. During unstimulated and CC IUI cycles, all pregnancies occurred in the first two cycles of treatment, while with hMG stimulation pregnancies also occurred in the third, fourth, and fifth IUI cycles. Nine of these 91 women subsequently conceived spontaneously, and three others conceived through in vitro fertilization. Only 6 of the 38 pregnancies resulted in spontaneous abortion (16%). Thus, pregnancies achieved in women with ASA have no increased risk of abortion.