The occurrence of Chlamydia trachomatis in the semen of men participating in an IVF programme.

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the most common causative agents of sexually transmitted diseases. The authors studied the occurrence of C. trachomatis in the semen of 184 asymptomatic men participating in the IVF programme. Twenty-six (14.1%) of the 184 tested were positive for C. trachomatis, these patients and their wives receiving doxycycline capsules twice, 100 mg on the first day and 100 mg/day for the following 13 days. This treatment was effective in 88.5% of the cases and in the rest, treatment continued with erithromycin 250 mg four times/day for 2 weeks. The authors compared the semen parameters (cell count, motility, morphology, bovine mucus penetration and hypo-osmotic swelling test) in the infected and non-infected groups and observed no significant difference between these two groups.