SPERM MIGRATION AND CERVICAL MUCUS STUDIES IN INDIVIDUAL CYCLES

Abstract

Sixty-five postcoital tests (PCT) were performed during twelve menstrual cycles, between 3 and 13 hr after spontaneous sexual relations, on seven couples who consulted the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau complaining of infertility and who were selected for this study on the basis of repeated normal semen analyses, normal coital technique, and ovulatory cycles as determined by basic body temperature, vaginal smears, and endometrial biopsies; and the results were correlated with the quality of cervical mucus. A rise was observed in both PCT results and quality of cervical mucus from a pre-ovulatory low to an ovulatory plateau, with a post-ovulatory deterioration of quality. The curves for cervical mucus and PCT paralleled each other, except that the PCT quality deteriorated more slowly than that of the cervical mucus. The mucus from the cervical canal showed an increase in the proportion of normal (oval) spermatozoa of 5 to 15% over the figure reported for the corresponding masturbated semen specimens.