Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Background & Aim: Infections caused by genital mycoplasmas may have harmful effects on the fertility of men and may lead to male infertility. This study was performed to detect the prevalence of these bacteria in infertile men referred to Royan Institute.

Patients and Method: Semen samples were collected from 220 infertile men and were inoculated into PPLO broth transport media and sent to the laboratory. Following filteration through 0.45µm pore-size disposable filters, the filterates were inoculated into Arginine PPLO broth and Urea PPLO broth media. In cases of color change, the broth media were sub-cultured onto PPLO agar plates. All media were incubated at 37˚C under elevated CO2 atmosphere.

Results: From a total of 220 semen samples cultured, 7 cases (3.2%) were positive for only Mycoplasma hominis, 61 cases (27.7%) were positive for only Ureaplasma urealyticum, and 11 cases (5%) were positive for both of them. Thus, 18 cases (8.2%) of Mycoplasma hominis and 72 cases (32.7%) of Ureaplasma urealyticum were isolated from the samples. Evaluation of semen parameters showed that pH was lower in the two groups of “only U. urealyticum positive” and  “both bacteria positive” than “both bacteria negative” group (p value=0.031 and p value= 0.006  respectively).  Also, the mean  sperm motility was lower in “both bacteria positive” group than “both bacteria negative” group  (p=0.032).

Conclusion:The results of this study showed that a high percentage of infertile men are infected with these bacteria. If these infections are not diagnosed and treated, this may lead to PID and infertility. Therefore, because of high cost of other diagnostic methods such as PCR, isolation of these bacteria in infertile men via culture method is feasible and necessary.