Bacterial risk and sperm cryopreservation.

Prior to sperm cryopreservation, French guidelines only recommend viral screening for serological status towards human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B and C viruses and Treponema palidum. The probability of semen infection by other bacterial pathogens is not taken into consideration by the current recommendations. The objective of the present study was to evaluate this risk and a strategy to reduce it prospectively. Ninety-six patients consulting for sperm cryopreservation underwent a semen culture simultaneously to cryopreservation. The patients were classified into three groups following semen culture results: negative culture (group 1, 77/96, 80.2%), positive culture with saprophytic agents (group 2, 9/96, 9.4%) and positive culture with pathogen agents (group 3, 10/96, 10.4%). For six patients of the latter group showing a genital infection with Ureaplasma urealyticum, a discontinuous gradient selection performed on the cryopreserved sample was efficient to discard bacteria. These data emphasize the usefulness to cultivate semen simultaneously to cryopreservation and demonstrate the ability to remove some microbial agents from semen before its use in assisted reproductive techniques.