Introduction of a routine sperm dna fragmentation test as a significant help in evaluating male fertility potential

Male fertility evaluation involves a semen analysis which normal values can also be found in infertile men. Sperm DNA fragmentation is highly associated with male infertility and presents obstacle in selecting healthy sperm for successful in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection. The goal of this study was to examine how testing sperm for DNA fragmentation can help in diagnosis of patients who have normal semen parameters but problems with fertility. A 21 male patients in age from 24 to 55were examined by established standard semen parameters and using Halosperm® test kit to determine sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF). For every patient, the routine semen analysis included measurements of the amount of semen (volume), sperm count (concentration), sperm movement (motility) and sperm shape (morphology). The threshold value of DNA fragmentation index (DFI) in Halosperm® test was at 30%.Our results showed that in 50% of cases where patients had normal semen values, they had high sperm DNA fragmentation index, and in some cases even above 95%. These findings are suggesting that due to limitations of standard semen analysis an additional tests, such as test for sperm DNA integrity, can prevent selection of sperm with damaged DNA and increase pregnancy success rate. Testing for sperm DNA fragmentation could help with fertility diagnosis of male patients and could be used as a part of routine analysis of semen. It can give answers to male infertility in cases where standard semen analysis cannot.