Does seasonality alter intrauterine insemination outcomes: a 5-year study

PURPOSE: To determine if seasonal changes alter pregnancy rate in intrauterine insemination (IUI) patients. METHODS: One-thousand and eighty semen analyses prepared for IUI were evaluated in this retrospective cohort study of 496 patients. RESULTS: Volume, pH, sperm concentration, and pregnancy rates were not altered by season. However, the percent motility, the total motile spermatozoa in the ejaculate, the straight-line velocity (VSL) of spermatozoa, as well as the morphology of sperm were altered by season. In a subset of these patients that were defined as normal, only the VSL and the morphology of the spermatozoa were altered by seasonal changes. CONCLUSIONS: Seasonality alters sperm motility parameters as well as morphology, but these changes are not significant enough to alter pregnancy rates.