Outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles with fresh testicular spermatozoa obtained on the day of or the day before oocyte collection and with cryopreserved testicular sperm in patients with azoospermia

Objective To compare the outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)-ET cycles with fresh testicular spermatozoa obtained on the same day or the day before oocyte retrieval with frozen-thawed spermatozoa. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Fertility center. Patient(s) The first ICSI-ET cycle of 337 couples with motile testicular spermatozoa of azoospermic patients. Intervention(s) Microdissection testicular sperm extraction (TESE), sperm cryopreservation, ICSI-ET. Main Outcome Measure(s) Fertilization, implantation, clinical pregnancy rates (PRs) and delivery rates. Result(s) Testicular sperm retrieval was performed on the day of oocyte retrieval in 166 cycles (group A), the day before oocyte retrieval in 42 cycles (group B), and the frozen-thawed testicular spermatozoa were used in 129 cycles (group C). The groups were comparable in terms of the ages of male and female patients, ovarian response to stimulation, as well as the number of oocytes injected. The number of cycles with nonobstructive azoospermia and obstructive azoospermia was evenly distributed in each group. Fertilization rates were 70.7%, 68.7%, and 67.3%, clinical PRs 31.3%, 30.9%, and 25.5%, and delivery rates 28.9%, 28.5%, and 23.2% for groups A, B, and C, respectively. The outcomes of patients with nonobstructive azoospermia did not differ from those of patients with obstructive azoospermia within and among the groups. Conclusion(s) Neither the timing of TESE (on the day of or the day before oocyte retrieval) nor the use of frozen-thawed testicular sperm affects the outcome of ICSI-ET cycle when motile spermatozoa are obtained in azoospermic men. In addition, etiology of azoospermia does not have any influence on the outcome with different timing of microdissection TESE procedure for ICSI.