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Is the Lack of Prior Exposure to Sperm Antigens Associated With Worse Neonatal and Maternal Outcomes?

Is the Lack of Prior Exposure to Sperm Antigens Associated With Worse Neonatal and Maternal Outcomes? A 10 Years Single-center Experience Comparing ICSI-TESE Pregnancies From ICSI Pregnancies

Status
Completed
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT04852237
Enrollment
400
Registered
2021-04-21
Start date
2010-01-01
Completion date
2019-12-31
Last updated
2021-04-22

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Obstetric Complication, Obstructive Azoospermia

Keywords

Neonatal outcomes

Brief summary

The objective of this study is to determine if the lack of exposure to sperm antigens is associated with worse maternal and neonatal outcomes in pregnancies obtained after ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection)-TESE (testicular sperm extraction) for obstructive azoospermia. The primary outcomes that will be investigated include: * Maternal outcomes: live birth rate (LBR), abortion rate, and the rate of the main obstetrics complication, such as pre-eclampsia, gestational hypertension and diabetes mellitus. * Neonatal outcomes: gestational age, prematurity rate, birth weight, sex ratio, 1- and 5-min APGAR, birth defects.

Detailed description

Several studies investigated the role of paternal factors in the development of preeclampsia; in particular, they analyzed the correlation between the vaginal exposure to male partner's semen and the incidence of preeclampsia, observing both a reduced risk of preeclampsia after prolonged exposure to the paternal seminal fluid and a higher incidence of preeclampsia in pregnancies conceived with a new father or with sperm donor. This leads to the hypothesis of an immunological role for sperm in inducing a mucosal immune tolerance-like status at the level of the uterus that could be critical in the subsequent implantation. Previous studies also examined the neonatal outcomes from pregnancies obtained from surgically retrieved sperm, either epididymal or testicular sperm, and underlined that there is not overall increased risk in neonatal outcomes. Our study aims at having a complete view on paternal, maternal and neonatal information and a follow up, that allows to correct possible confounders and to analyze a wider group of outcomes.

Interventions

None listed

Sponsors

Istituto Clinico Humanitas
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Observational model
COHORT
Time perspective
RETROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 43 Years

Inclusion criteria

for case arm: * primary infertility * diagnosis of obstructive azoospermia * ICSI-TESE cycles Inclusion Criteria for control arm: * primary infertility * ICSI cycles with sperm from ejaculate

Exclusion criteria

* pre-gestational hypertension * pre-gestational diabetes

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Live birth rate (LBR)10 yearsRate of delivery of a living baby after at least 22 weeks of gestation
Abortion Rate (AR)10 yearsProportion of clinical pregnancies who failed to continue beyond 22 weeks of gestation
Maternal complications rate10 yearsIncidence of the obstetric complications, such as pre-eclampsia, gestational hypertension and diabetes, placenta previa and placental abruption.
Gestational age10 yearsMean gestational age of the pregnancies considered (written with both weeks and days; eg, 39 weeks and 0 days)
Prematurity rate10 yearsRate of pregnancies lasted less than 37 weeks and 0 days
Birth weight10 yearsMean birth weight of the neonates, written in grams.
Sex ratio10 yearsRatio between males and females among the newborns
1- and 5-min APGAR10 yearsObjective score of the condition of a baby after birth, at 1 and 5 minutes from the delivery (from 1 to 10 points).
Incidence of congenital defects10 yearsIncidence of congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities among the newborns of the study group (eg. clubfoot deformity, anorectal malformations, heart defects, ...)

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026