What happens when one or both members of the couple have any virus, such as hepatitis B, C or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)? Can they undergo an assisted reproduction treatment?
The first step is always to confirm that the disease is under control, treated and supervised by a doctor. This will be confirmed by analysis that provides information about the viral load at that time, that is, “the amount of virus” the patient has in his body. It order to go on, a low value is required.
It is also necessary to take into account who is affected by the virus, the woman, the man or both members in the couple. In this chapter, we will focus on the case in just one case, that is, when the male is affected, and we will see what happens then to the seminal sample.
As we do in every assisted reproduction treatment, in the laboratory we must select the most skilled sperm from the sample. However, in these cases (infectious samples), we must completely remove the virus from the sample prior to select the sperm, hence we must carry out the sperm washing.
The virus is not present in the spermatozoa themselves but in the seminal plasma, therefore the aim of the process is to “isolate” the spermatozoa and then, once confirmed that the sample is free of viruses, it will be ready to be used in reproductive treatments (IVF / ICSI).
Through a series of centrifugations and with special washing mediums, we can get the sperm, now free of any viral molecule. This, as we have seen before, will be confirmed by an analysis of the final sample at an external laboratory to have absolute certainty that the process has been carried out successfully.
If you have any questions or want to start a treatment with us, you can contact us by sending an email to info@centromedicomanzanera.com or using the contact forms on our website: https://www.centromedicomanzanera.com/en/formulario_en/
Have a nice day!
María Pombar Gómez
Embryologist
IMAGE: VectorStock
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