Effect of human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) in seropositive infertile women on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcome

Background: human t-cell lymphotrophic virus type 1 (htlv-1) has infected more than 20 million people worldwide. northeast of iran, mashhad, the capital of razavi khorasan province, is endemic for htlv-1 with a prevalence of 3% among general population. objective: we evaluated the icsi outcome in our program for (htlv-1) serodiscordant couples (sdcs) with the female infected in comparison with control group. materials and methods: this study was performed between 2007 and 2011 in novin infertility treatment center (mashhad, iran). we examined 32 icsi cycles of htlv-1 infected women in comparison with an age matched control group (n=62). icsi outcome was compared regarding fertilization rate (fr), embryo quality parameters, implantation rate (ir), clinical pregnancy rate (pr), and abortion rate (ar). results: fertilization (p=0.15), implantation (p=0.33), and pregnancy rate (p=0.12) were similar between the groups. no difference was found regarding the number of transferred embryos (on day 2 or 3) and cryopreserved embryos, multiple pregnancies, or abortion rates between the groups. conclusion: our results suggest that the embryo quality and icsi outcome are not affected by htlv-1 infection in serodiscordant couples. the major finding of this study is that the outcome of icsi in hiv-i-infected patients and seronegative controls is similar.