The effect of urogenital mycoplasmas on semen quality: an experience from a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia

Objectives: (1) To study the relationship between the presence of urogenital mycoplasmas (ureaplasma urealyticum and mycoplasma hominis) (Uu,Mh) and the abnormal results of semen specimens from patients complaining of infertility. (2) To check the efficacy of the mycofast kit for the detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing of urogenital mycoplasmas. Methods: Two hundred and twenty-five seminal fluid specimens collected from patients complaining mainly of infertility, who attended various clinics at King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) Riyadh, were investigated. The investigations included examination of semen parameters according to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. The mycofast screen and confirmation kit (Mycoplasma International-France) was used to detect the presence and antibiotic susceptibility of urogenital mycoplasmas according to the manufacturer's directions. Results: Urogenital mycoplasmas were grown from 58 (25.8%) of specimens. Fifty-four specimens grew Uu alone while 4 specimens showed mixed growth of Uu and Mh. The parameters mostly affected were the volume, sperm count, the % viable count and motility. None of these parameters showed a statistically significant difference when compared to the mycoplasma negative specimens. Out of the 54 Uu isolates, 13 were resistant to ciprofloxacin while 4 were resistant to tetracycline, minocycline and ciprofloxacin. On the other hand, 3 isolates were resistant to tetracycline and minocycline. Conclusions: No statistically significant difference was found between semen quality from urogenital mycoplasma positive and urogenital mycoplasma negative semen specimens. Therefore, male fertility appears not to be affected by the presence of urogenital mycoplasma thus screening of semen specimens for the presence of urogenital mycoplasma is not recommended.