AIH for Semen Insufficiency: 119 Cases

Abstract

The technique of artificial insemination with husband’s semen (AIH) is far from new: It came into use more than a century before artificial insemination with donor semen(AID). It has been employed essentially in two indications: Problems related to sexual intercourse and semen abnormalities. The former are less common and constitute special cases which do not involve, in principle, semen abnormalities. The focus of this paper will be on semen insufficiencies for which the results in artificial insemination have long been mediocre. The development of in vitro techniques permitting the improvement of semen quality has placed this subject in a new light. Artificial insemination with such semen which may have a greater chance of success is no longer the principal therapeutic act; rather it is simply the necessary complement to the procedures carried out on the semen. The simplest improvement technique is the use of a split ejaculate which was extensively studied by MacLeod and Hotchkiss in 1942.¹ In recent years, several reports have been published on patients treated by AIH,^2-7 but the success rates have been rather variable. Criteria for patient selection have not always been rigorous or well-defined. The uneven nature of these studies prompted us to undertake a detailed analysis of 119 cases of severe semen insufficiencies treated by AIH, usually with semen enrichment.