PURPOSE: to determine if the previous fertility history can predict current fertility status of a patient examined for couple’s infertility. METHODS: retrospective study involving semen analyses from 183 consecutive subfertile patients evaluated from September 2002 to March 2004. We excluded those patients who had undergone radio or chemotherapy, orchiectomy or vasectomy. Mean values of all analyses were used for patients with multiple semen analysis. Patients with more than 20x10(6) sperm/mL, motility higher than 50% and with normal strict sperm morphology higher than 14% were considered normal. Patients were divided into two groups, according to the fertility status: primary infertility (118 patients) and secondary infertility (65 patients). Data were analyzed according to the chi2 test and the Student t-test. RESULTS: no differences were detected in the mean age between patients with primary infertility, 37.3±6.3, and secondary infertility, 38.1±5.9; p=0.08. In the group of patients with primary infertility, 51.9% (61 patients) had a normal sperm concentration, 70.3% (83 patients) had normal sperm motility and 26.3% (31 patients) had normal sperm morphology. In the group of patients with secondary infertility, 53.8% (35 patients) had normal sperm concentration, 75.4% (49 patients) had normal sperm motility and 32.3% (21 patients) had normal sperm morphology. No significant differences were detected in sperm concentration (21.3x10(6)/mL versus 23.1x10(6)/mL; p=0.07), motility (45.2 versus 48.1%; p=0.08) and morphology (6.1 versus 6.4%; p=0.09) between groups of patients with primary and secondary infertility. CONCLUSIONS: semen analysis should be requested even in cases of prior male fertility. Physicians should not presume a patient to have a normal semen analysis based on his previous history of initiating a pregnancy.
Infertility, male; Semen; Fertility; Sperm count
