Evaluation of donor semen quality provided by six sperm banks: a retrospective study of 1877 artificial insemination cycles.

This study aimed at evaluating the impacts of sperm quality of six national sperm banks on pregnancy rates (PRs) of artificial insemination with donor sperm (AID) in China. A large retrospective analysis was performed on 1877 insemination cycles in 1209 women in a unique setting during a 3.5-year period. Global PRs of 22.1% per cycle and 34.2% per patient were achieved. The PRs of the six banks varied from 15.5% to 29.0% (P = 0.011). Significant differences were observed in the quality of donor semen provided by the six sperm banks. Moreover, in some banks, the poor sperm quality was related to the suboptimal PRs. However, in certain banks, high values of sperm parameters did not result in satisfactory PRs accordingly. These data demonstrated that variability of donor semen quality existed in the different banks. But, sperm parameters after thawing may not be detrimental factors affecting the success rate of AID treatment. Further studies are needed to seek potential molecular markers for predicting fertility potency of donor sperm.