Alterações no espermograma em casais inférteis portugueses

Infertility is defined as one year of unprotected intercourse without achieves pregnancy. Studies suggest that 15% of couples may have problems to concept one son and one male factor can be identified in about half of the cases. During one year period, we analyzed the ejaculates of 150 couples, attending to the Gynecology Department of Centro Hospitalar do Porto, EPE (Hospital Geral de Santo António) who present fertility problems. Volum e, liquefaction, viscosity, sperm concentration, total sperm count, leukocytes, agglutination, vitality, motility, morphology and pH were performed. The average age of the participants was 34 years. From the 150 sperm analyses performed, we found that the most frequent alterations, considering the World Health Organization (WHO) reference values, were teratozoospermia (99,3%), asthenozoospermia (57,9%) and sperm concentration decreased (32,7%). A significant statistical correlation (p<0,001) was observed between sperm concentration, total sperm count, motility and morphology. We didn't found significant statistical correlation between age and the studied laboratory parameters. This is the first Portuguese study that analysis the seminal parameters associated with conjugal infertility. Our study highlights the necessity to perform more extensive Portuguese studies, which include men previously classified as fertile or potentially infertile (before women factors exclusion), contributing for the study of this problematic on national level as well as for the determination of reference values adjusted to our population, such as achieved in other countries and recommended by the WHO.