Culture of seminal fluid in a fertility clinic

To determine whether the culture of seminal fluid in a fertility clinic is of importance, bacterial cultures were obtained in a consecutive series of 96 patients. Routine bacteriologic cultures were performed within 1 hour of collection. Ureaplasma urealyticum (T-mycoplasma) cultures were also obtained in the last 31 of the patients in this series. Of these 96 patients, 11% showed significant bacterial growth (>10⁴ colonies/ml) in the semen specimens, 8% in those patients with normal semen analyses and 14% in those with abnormal analyses. Fifty-eight per cent of semen specimens were positive for U. urealyticum. In reference to normal and abnormal semen analyses the distribution was the same regardless of the presence or absence of U. urealyticum. Antibiotic treatment resulted in minor changes in motility and morphology in a few patients despite conversion to a negative culture. Cultures were coordinated with microscopic urinalysis and the presence of white blood cells or bacteria in stained smears of semen. There were no significant differences between groups with positive or negative cultures. Trichomonas vaginalis was not seen.