[Testicular histology does not affect the clinical outcomes of ICSI in men with non-obstructive azoospermia].

Objective: To investigate whether testicular histology influences the clinical outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in men with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA).

METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data about 73 cases of NOA undergoing ICSI, including 105 ICSI cycles and 79 embryo transfer cycles. The infertility of the patients was attributed to male factors only or both male and female tube factors and the females' age was ≤38 years. Based on testicular histology, we divided the ICSI cycles into three groups: hypospermatogenesis (HS, n = 72), maturation arrest (MA, n = 21) and Sertoli cells only (SCO, n = 12). We recorded and analyzed the age of both the males and females, infertility duration, base follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) level, dose and days of gonadotropin (Gn) administration, estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P) levels on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration, endometrial thickness, number of metaphase II (MII) oocytes, and rates of fertilization, transferrable embryos, high-quality embryos, clinical pregnancy, and abortion.

RESULTS: The rates of fertilization, failed fertilization, transferrable embryos, and high-quality embryos, and the average number of transferred embryos were 67.03% (553/825), 9.52% (10/105), 85.66% (472/551), 35.03% (193/551), and 2.10, respectively, resulting in 44 pregnancies (55.70%) and 42 live births (53.16%), with no birth defects. No statistically significant differences were observed among the HS, MA and SCO groups in the mean age of the men and women, infertility duration, base FSH level, Gn dose, Gn days, E2 and P levels on the hCG day, endometrial thickness, or number of MII oocytes, nor in the rates of fertilization (68.51% vs 64.39% vs 61.45%), transferrable embryos (85.05% vs 90.48% vs 83.05%), or high-quality embryos (33.09% vs 41.67% vs 38.98%). The rates of clinical pregnancy and embryo implantation were higher in the HS (60.00% and 37.61%) and SCO (62.50% and 50.00%) than in the MA group (37.50% and 21.21%), but with no statistically significant differences (P >0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Once testicular sperm is retrieved, desirable clinical outcomes can be achieved in ICSI for NOA patients, which is not affected by testicular histopathology.