Successful pregnancies and healthy live births using frozen-thawed sperm retrieved by a new modified Hotchkiss procedure in males with retrograde ejaculation: first case series

BACKGROUND: In couples presenting with retrograde ejaculation refractory to medical treatment, the first choice of fertility treatment should be Assisted Reproductive Techniques using rapidly purified spermatozoa retrieved from post-ejaculatory urine. The Hotchkiss technique and modified variants are simple and efficient for retrieving sperm from the bladder. We developed a new protocol, including a novel modified Hotchkiss technique involving sperm cryopreservation. The aim was to study the pregnancy rate and birth rate achieved by intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) using frozen-thawed sperm retrieved from the bladder with this novel modified Hotchkiss technique in patients with refractory retrograde ejaculation. RESULTS: In this descriptive retrospective, single-center study, we analyzed the local database of all patients who banked sperm at the CECOS Laboratory Biology of Reproduction of La Conception University Hospital, Marseille, France, between 2004 and 2014. A total of 2171 patients banked sperm during this time, including 63 patients with retrograde ejaculation, of whom ten patients banked sperm that had been retrieved by the modified Hotchkiss technique. These ten couples underwent 26 ICSI cycles: nine clinical pregnancies were achieved in six couples, including eight after fresh embryo transfer and one after thawed embryo transfer, resulting in seven live births. The average live birth rate per transfer was 28 %. CONCLUSIONS: We report the largest series of births using frozen-thawed spermatozoa retrieved from post-ejaculatory urine by a modified Hotchkiss technique. This series of births demonstrates that this new modified Hotchkiss technique allows for successful association with sperm cryopreservation, leading to an efficient and easy management of couples with refractory retrograde ejaculation.