Short term application of compound L-carnitine in the treatment of male infertility by intracytoplasmic sperm injection

Abstract

Objective To observe the changes of semen quality and the outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection after short term treatment with compound L-carnitine in the male patients with severe oligospermia and asthenospermia. Methods According to the standard of WHO4 semen analysis, this study included 75 patients with severe oligospermia and asthenospermia. Thirty-two cases in the treatment group were treated with compound L-carnitine for 2 weeks before the ICSI, 43 cases in control group were not treated before the ICSI. The sperm concentration, the percentage of a+ b sperm, sperm deformity rate, sperm DNA fragmentation rate were compared before and after treatment. The fertility rate, cleavage rate, effective embryo rate and clinical pregnancy rate of the two groups were analyzed after the ICSI. Results In the treatment group, the percentage of forward moving sperm was higher after treatment, and the abnormal rate, sperm DNA fragmentation rate were lower. The effective embryo rate of the treatment group(77.5%) was significantly higher than that of the control group(69.04%, P<0.05). Conclusions Short term application of compound L-carnitine can improve sperm quality in patients with severe oligospermia and asthenospermia, and help to improve the success rate of ICSI in patients with severe oligospermia and asthenospermia. Key words: Compound L-carnitine; Intracytoplasmic sperm injection; Infertility