The effect of cryopreservation technique in a very low number sperm count at Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia

Background: The massive development of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) offers new hope for the infertile couple. However, the advanced storage methods to preserve the quality of sperm has been raising by cryopreservation technique. This study aims to analyze the motility rate, recovery rate, and viability in subgroups of cryopreserved spermatozoa from the oligozoospermic patient as the quality parameter. Method: A true-experimental study by pre-test and post-test group design was conducted among 13 oligozoospermic patients with a very low sperm counts at Medical Biology Laboratory Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia. Parameters assessed in this study include motility, viability, and concentration of spermatozoa according to Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Sperm 5th edition. The samples were divided into 4 groups such as Group 1 (71-100 sperm), Group 2 (31-70 sperm), Group 3 (11-30 sperm), and Group 4 (1-10 sperm) based on sperm counts which underwent 30 repetitions of cryopreservation. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17 for Windows. Results: There was a significant difference in the recovery rate among Group 1 (34.88±1.87), Group 2 (44.77±1.89), Group 3 (61.83±2.09), and Group 4 (70.90±2.71) of cryopreservation technique (P<0.001). However, there was no significantly different in the motility rate of sperm-cryopreservation technique among Group 1 (65.60±14.63), Group 2 (52.50±26.28), Group 3 (39.90±9.95), and Group 4 (44.70±41.77) (p=0.070). Based on the sperm-viability parameter assessed in this study, there was no significant difference among Group 1 (56.40±3.89), Group 2 (58.60±5.99), Group 3 (59.60±9.96), and Group 4 (56.70±11.30) (p=0.504). Conclusions: The sperm-cryopreservation technique significantly affected the recovery rate of very low sperm number count among groups. However, there was no significantly different in the motility rate and viability parameter in this study.