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NEW YORK, Mar 19 (Reuters Health) - A fertility technique may be the safest way yet for couples to conceive a healthy child if the male partner is HIV positive. The method has already been used by Greek researchers to help two such couples give birth to healthy baby boys, according to a report.
The technique is called intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or ICSI, and it involves the injection of a single sperm into the center of a single egg using a tiny pipette. The laboratory technique results in an embryo, which is transferred to the female partner's womb. Once there, hopefully pregnancy will occur. ICSI is usually used when there are problems with the male's sperm, such as low sperm counts.
But Dr. Dimitris Loutradis and colleagues at Athens University Medical School in Greece report that ICSI is a potential method of reproduction for couples in which the father is HIV positive and the mother is HIV negative.
In the January issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility, the researchers note that intrauterine insemination (IUI), in which semen can be processed to avoid transmitting the virus, has been used by such couples in the past and resulted in the birth of thousands of HIV-negative children. But "there are still arguments that IUI is not risk free," they state. The authors suggest the risk of infection may be reduced even further with ICSI, since it involves fertilization with just one sperm, not the millions used in IUI.
In the study, two HIV-positive men gave sperm samples and had sperm injected using the ICSI technique into individual eggs collected from their wives. Three to four embryos were transferred to the women.
Both women gave birth to healthy boys who tested negative for HIV at birth. HIV testing was also negative in both women. One of the mothers and her baby underwent testing again at 3 and 6 months and both had negative results. The researchers plan to test the second baby again at 6 months.
"We consider ICSI a potentially successful method for achieving pregnancies in HIV (discordant) couples," Loutradis and colleagues write.
SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility 2001;75:210-212.
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