Effect of cervical mucus aspiration before intrauterine insemination.

Objective: To determine whether cervical mucus aspiration before intrauterine insemination (IUI) has any effect on clinical pregnancy rates.

Method: The outcomes of 186 IUI cycles in 95 consecutive patients in whom mucus was aspired prior to IUI were compared retrospectively with those of 1057 IUI cycles in 505 women.

Results: The pregnancy rate was 15.1% (28 pregnancies for 186 cycles) in the cervical mucus aspiration group and 9.9% (105 pregnancies for 1057 cycles) in the control group (P=0.05). Mucus aspiration led to significantly increased pregnancy rates for women with unexplained infertility (24% in the aspiration group vs 9.5% in the control group; P=0.04).

Conclusion: Cervical mucus aspiration before IUI might improve clinical pregnancy rates by yet-to-be-defined mechanisms.