Effect of Abstinence Duration on Embryo Development

Effect of Abstinence Duration on Embryo Development: a Prospective Sibling Oocyte Study

The aim the investigators study is to analyze the embryo development if oocytes of the participants are injected with sperm from a longer or shorter (2 hours) abstinence duration.

Participants undergoing an IVF treatment, are asked to respect an abstinence duration of 2-7 days. This is to obtain a sufficient number of motile sperm. A recent investigation, analyzed the quality (number and motility) of a sperm sample produced after an abstinence duration of 4 to 7 days, followed by a second sperm sample 2 hours later. The second sample (after 2 hours) was able to produce sperm cells with a higher motility. Not only has this short abstinence duration of 2 hours a positive effect on the motility, it will also reduce the sperm DNA damage, which again has a positive effect on embryo development. Because participants need gametes of high quality to obtain embryos with a high quality, the investigators want to investigate what the effect is of abstinence duration on embryo development.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients planned for embryo development up to day 5
• at least 6 mature oocytes
• fresh ejaculates
• ICSI
• fresh embryo transfer or freeze all strategy
• all stimulation protocols
• concentration of >1x10^6 /ml sperm

Exclusion Criteria:

• IVF
• IVF versus ICSI patients
• chirurgical sperm
• acceptors of donor oocytes
• patients with PGD
• patients already enrolled in another study