Semen Quality and In‐vitro Fertilization

Summary: The standard sperm parameters, and a newly developed assay, the hypoosmotic swelling (HOS) test, of 208 ejaculates were correlated with in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcome to assess their predictive value of the fertilizing capacity of spermatozoa. One hundred fifty-three (73.6%) of the ejaculates possessed spermatozoa that fertilized at least one oocyte and were considered fertile. Among the semen parameters studied, only the HOS test had a relatively high (r = 0.46, p< 0.001) association with the fertilizing capacity of the spermatozoa. This test was also able to predict the outcome of IVF more reliably than the other semen parameters studied.