The effectiveness of modified sperm washes in severely oligoasthenozoospermic men infected with human immunodeficiency and hepatitis C viruses.

Men who are seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis C virus now can father children safely, thanks to sperm washing and nested polymerase chain-reaction techniques, followed by intracytoplasmic sperm injection. However, in a small percentage of such patients, it is impossible to recover spermatozoa after said procedures because of their highly impaired spermatogenesis. We have established that less rigorous methods, such as repeated centrifugation, yield nested polymerase chain-reaction HIV- and hepatitis C virus-negative specimens, even in sperm samples from men with severe oligoasthenozoospermia.