Postcoital recovery of sperm in Douglas pouch aspirates of infertile patients

Abstract

Tubal dysfunction is sometimes involved in cases of infertility. Clinical diagnostic procedures for tubal patency are occasionally misleading and contradictory and do not provide information on tubal function. The recovery of viable sperm in Douglas pouch aspirates (DPA) was used to evaluate tubal function in 94 infertile patients with different tubal findings at hysterosalpingography (HS) and laparoscopy. Sperm recovery in DPA of 10 infertile patients with poor or negative postcoital Sims-Huhner test results demonstrated the limitation of this test for evaluation of sperm transport in the female genital tract. Laparoscopic aspiration of DP may be performed in infertile patients undergoing chromosalpingoscopy as a part of their infertility investigation. The procedure should be supplementary to other available diagnostic parameters.