Spontaneous pregnancy in couples waiting for artificial insemination donor because of severe male infertility

Objective: To assess the spontaneous fertility in couples with severe seminal conditions while waiting for artificial insemination donor. Study design: Prospective follow-up during a period of 24 months. Setting: University Medical School. Participants: There were 285 couples in which the male had a very severe seminal pathology: 166 azoospermia, 86 oligozoospermia and 33 severe asthenozoospermia. Outcome measures: Pregnancy rates after being included on waiting list. Results: The spontaneous pregnancy rate was 3.2% (9/285), per month spontaneous pregnancy rate being 0.13%. Spontaneous pregnancy rate was 0% in azoospermia (0/166), versus 7.6% (9/119) in non-azoospermia cases. Spontaneous pregnancy rate was 8.5% (4/47) in the group with less than 0.1 million motile sperm/cc, 6.5% (3/46) in the group between 0.1 and 1 million/cc and 7.7% (2/26) in the group with 1-2 million/cc. Conclusion: In a 2-year follow-up, pregnancy rate among non-azoospermic couples before undergoing artificial insemination was 7.6%. Extramatrimonial pregnancy (based on anamnesis and sperm analysis) seemed to be uncommon. Even in cases with less than 0.1 million of motile sperm/cc there was not a negligible spontaneous pregnancy rate. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.