Objective: To explore the clinical characteristics and the preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for male Robertsonian translocations.
Methods: From Jan 2005 to Oct 2011, 96 PGD cycles of 80 male Robertsonian translocations were performed at the Center of Reproductive Medicine of Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing. All the couples were involved in assisted reproductive therapy because of oligozoospermia or repeated abortions. Pregnancy results and clinical characteristics were analyzed in this study.
Results: Of all the 80 Robertsonian translocation couples, 62 (77.50%, 62/80) couples suffered from primary infertility due to severe oligoospermia and 8 (10%, 8/80) couples suffered from secondary infertility due to oligoospermia. Moreover, 10 (12.50%, 10/80) couples had recurrent spontaneous abortion. Of all the 80 male Robertsonian translocations, 50 were (13; 14) translocations and 15 (14; 21) translocations. The study showed that 79 PGD cycles had the balanced embryos to transfer and 25 cycles resulted in clinical pregnancies. The clinical pregnancy rate per transfer cycle was 31.65% (25 of 79). Now, 18 couples had 21 viable infants and 3 were ongoing pregnant.
Conclusion: Oligozoospermia is the main factor for the infertility of the male Robertsonian translocations. Artificial reproductive techniques can solve their reproductive problems. Moreover, PGD will decrease the risk of recurrent spontaneous abortion and the malformations.