Purpose: This prospective study compared the effects of four sperm preparation methods on semen samples with normal sperm parameters. The samples were obtained from husbands of infertile couples being evaluated at a fertility center in New York City. Twenty-nine of 51 men in the study (56.9%) had fathered a child within the past 2-5 years. Specifically, the study compared the effects of simple wash (unselective) and three selective methods--conventional swim-up, three-gradient Percoll separation, and swim-up from the Percoll-separated fraction--on the concentration, percentage motile, percentage normal (oval) morphology, percentage intact acrosomes, percentage motile sperm recovery, and motile sperm concentration in the processed samples. The same parameters were measured in the untreated ejaculate, resulting in five data sets. These data were analyzed by both comparison across the five sets and pairwise multiple comparisons between sets.
Results: The study showed that of the selective methods, conventional swim-up and Percoll separation yielded comparably optimal percentages motile sperm recovery and motile sperm concentrations.
Conclusion: However, swim-up yielded a significantly higher percentage oval and percentage motile sperm than Percoll, while Percoll had a significantly higher percentage acrosome-intact. Swim-up after Percoll separation yielded the highest percentage motility and percentage oval but had the lowest motile sperm concentration with the lowest percentage acrosome-intact.