Influence of peritoneal fluid from spontaneous and stimulated cycles on sperm motility in vitro.

Summary. Peritoneal fluids (PFs) from spontaneous (n= 14) and gonadotrophin-stimulated cycles (n= 20) were obtained during diagnostic laparoscopy and gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) procedures, respectively. The effects of these fluids on the linear component of sperm motility and on the percentage of motile spermatozoa were studied in vitro by objective motility assessments and compared to a control medium (B2-Menezo). Overall, the two types of PFs were found to have rather similar effects on the motility parameters studied. However, the fluids from hormonally-stimulated cycles sustained motility better (i.e., sperm velocity and percentage of motile sperm) and in a rather constant manner as a function of time (narrower range distributions of the motility measurements). Furthermore, it was observed that under identical experimental conditions motility measurements depended not only on the type of PF used but also on the sperm sample. These results suggest that assisted reproduction procedures in which PF is the medium where the gametes eventually meet and interact, such as direct peritoneal insemination (DIPI) or peritoneal oocyte and sperm transfer (POST), could have different success rates if performed in spontaneous rather than in stimulated cycles. At the same time, our results may help to explain why different pregnancy rates were reported in different studies using DIP or POST.