Two studies have suggested that a male infection with ureaplasma may increase the risk of miscarriage after ICSI treatment. Ureaplasma is a bacteria which may grow in the reproductive tract. It is notoriously difficult to grow in the lab and so is seldom tested. There are no symptoms. We performed a study looking at how common ureaplasma was in our population. We asked all men having a semen analysis if they were happy to be tested for this.18% of men were positive. The study was tricky to do as we needed to taxi the samples to the lab immediately.
At Fertility Associates we have decided to ask all couples starting IVF to take a single dose of azithromycin (an antibiotic) as a precautionary measure. Many IVF clinics world-wide give prophylactic antibiotics to the man and woman prior to IVF treatment, so the concept is not new. Although ureaplasma may impact more on the outcome of an ICSI cycle, we decided to treat all people doing IVF as well, as there are some circumstances when ICSI may be required because of sperm quality on the day of egg collection.
Read more about Ureaplasma and Azithromycin in our Fertility Facts sheets here
