Artificial insemination: a comparison of pregnancy rates with intrauterine versus cervical insemination and washed sperm versus serum swim-up sperm preparations.

A four-cycle artificial insemination protocol was undertaken, with luteinizing hormone (LH) timing, to compare washed sperm and serum swim-up sperm preparations and cervical and intrauterine insemination. Of the 75 patients entered into the protocol series, 63 finished all 4 cycles. During the treatment period, 24 patients became pregnant, 20 of whom were donor (AID) pregnancies (out of 52 patients) and 4 were husband (AIH) pregnancies (out of 11 patients). Seventy-five percent of the pregnancies were intrauterine, whereas only 25% were from cervical inseminations. Sixty-two percent of the pregnancies were due to serum swim-up sperm preparations, and 38% were due to washed sperm preparations. The data indicate substantially higher pregnancy rates can be obtained with intrauterine insemination and suggest that additional studies are necessary to determine if the method of sperm preparation significantly influences pregnancy rates.