Culture of seminal fluid in infertile men and relationship to semen evaluation.

Bacterial flora of the seminal fluid and its influence on semen quality, was examined in 225 asymptomatic unselected men. Each semen sample was cultured aerobically, anaerobically, for genital mycoplasmas, and for Chlamydia trachomatis. Semen analysis was made according to standard methods recommended by the W.H.O. All 225 semen samples had microbial isolates. All isolates had colony counts of 10(2) colony forming units (cfu/ml). Thirty-three cases had greater than 10(2) cfu/ml, 85 cases had greater than 10(3) cfu/ml and 78 cases greater than 10(5) cfu/ml. The most common organisms isolated were Ureaplasma urealyticum in 86 samples and C. trachomatis in 26 samples. The most frequent abnormal parameters were viability (117 of 212, 52%), motility (85 of 212, 40%) and number of sperm cells (74 of 225, 32.8%). No significant correlation was found between abnormal semen parameters and presence of U. urealyticum, and C. trachomatis. We concluded that asymptomatic bacteriospermia (infection) in the semen did not significantly affect the count, motility or morphologic features of the specimen.