Association between bacteriospermia and abnormal semen characteristics

Aims: to determine the prevalence of bacterial infection in semen of infertile males and the association between positive bacterial culture and form of male seminal infertility in warri,nigeria. methods: this study was carried out in a referral centre for infertility treatment in warri,nigeria. semen samples were analyzed following the world health organization guidelines and bacteriological analysis of semen samples was done using standard techniques. results: the mean age of subjects studied was 37.3±1.0 years. 63(52.5%) out of 120 infertile males studied were found to have significant bacteriospermia. the commonest bacterial isolate recovered was staphylococcus aureus 28(44.4%),this was followed by coagulase negative staphylococcus 13(21%),enterococcus faecalis 12(19%),escherichia coli 7(11.1%) while the least was proteus mirabilis 3(4.8%). there was a significant association between leukocytospermia and a positive bacterial culture (p<0.001). staphylococcus aureus infection was higher among infertile males with oligozoospermia (p=0.01). enterococcus faecalis were commonly isolated from teratozoospermic infertile males (p<0.001). escherichia coli were more isolated from asthenozoospermic males but this was not significantly different from the other forms of seminal infertility. conclusions: the prevalence of bacteriospermia among infertile males was high; staphylococcus aureus and enterococcus faecalis infection of semen seemed to correlate with poor sperm count and abnormal sperm morphology respectively.