Papaverine as a replacement for pentoxifylline to select thawed testicular or epididymal spermatozoa before ICSI.

Objectives: Pentoxifylline has been used to improve sperm motility in Assisted Reproductive Technology mainly by initiating sperm motility in immotile spermatozoa samples obtained surgically. Indeed, as Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection leads to very poor results when using immotile gametes, pentoxifylline gives better results by easing the selection of viable sperm mobilized after incubation. In 2011, the French Haute Autorité de santé decided that pentoxifylline used for in vivo purpose proposed Insufficient Medical Service and pentoxifylline was thus withdrawn from the French materia medica.