Intracervical insemination versus intrauterine insemination with cryopreserved donor sperm in the natural cycle: a randomized controlled trial.

Study Question: Is intracervical insemination (ICI) non-inferior to IUI with cryopreserved donor sperm in the natural cycle in terms of live birth?

Summary Answer: ICI with cryopreserved donor sperm in the natural cycle was inferior to IUI in terms of live birth.

What Is Known Already: Both ICI and IUI in the natural cycle are performed as first-line treatments in women who are eligible for donor sperm treatment. High-quality data on the effectiveness of ICI versus IUI with cryopreserved donor sperm in the natural cycle in terms of live birth is lacking.

Spermatogonial Stem Cell-Based Therapies: Taking Preclinical Research to the Next Level.

Fertility preservation biobanking of testicular tissue retrieved from testicular biopsies is now generally recommended for boys who need to undergo gonadotoxic treatment prior to the onset of puberty, as a source of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). SSCs have the potential of forming spermatids and may be used for therapeutic fertility approaches later in life. Although in the past 30 years many milestones have been reached to work towards SSC-based fertility restoration therapies, including transplantation of SSCs, grafting of testicular tissue and various and spermatogenesis approaches, unfortunately, all these fertility therapies are still in a preclinical phase and not yet available for patients who have become infertile because of their treatment during childhood.

Donor sperm treatment: the role of semen parameters in intracervical insemination, a retrospective cohort study.

Donor sperm treatment is advised to be performed with frozen-thawed donor semen. A disadvantage of frozen-thawed semen is lower pregnancy rates compared to inseminations with fresh semen. Semen parameters affect ongoing pregnancy rates in intracervical inseminations with frozen-thawed donor semen.

Assessment of fresh and cryopreserved testicular tissues from (pre)pubertal boys during organ culture as a strategy for in vitro spermatogenesis.

Study Question: Can the organ culture method be applied to both fresh and cryopreserved human (pre)pubertal testicular tissue as a strategy for in vitro spermatogenesis?

Summary Answer: Although induction of spermatogenesis was not achieved in vitro, testicular architecture, endocrine function and spermatogonial proliferation were maintained in both fresh and cryopreserved testicular tissues.

What Is Known Already: Cryopreservation of a testicular biopsy is increasingly offered as a fertility preservation strategy for prepubertal cancer patients. One of the proposed experimental approaches to restore fertility is the organ culture method, which, in the mouse model, successfully allows for in vitro development of spermatozoa from testicular biopsies.

pH stability of human preimplantation embryo culture media: effects of culture and batches.

Research Question: How stable is the pH of human preimplantation embryo culture media during IVF culture and is there variation in pH between batches of culture media?

Design: To evaluate pH stability, three batches of three culture media were incubated in triplicate without embryos (sham culture) at CO levels recommended by the manufacturers (5% or 6%) for 4 days. To evaluate differences in pH between batches, the pH of three batches of five culture media was measured in triplicate during 1 day of sham culture. Linear mixed models were used for the analysis.