Increased frequency of congenital chromosomal aberrations in female partners of couples undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection

We evaluated the frequency of congenital chromosomal aberrations in asample of 305 couples included in an intracytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI) programme. Twenty individuals (3.3%) with congenital chromosomalabnormalities could be identified. The following types of abnormalitieswere observed: reciprocal translocations (n = 7), Robertsoniantranslocations (n = 3), inversions (n = 3), other structural aberrations (n= 4) and sex chromosome aberrations (n = 3). The rate of chromosomallyabnormal males (10/305, 3.3%) lay within the expected range for patientswith reduced semen quality. Surprisingly, 50% (10/20) of all abnormalkaryotypes were contributed by the female partner of ICSI patients. Thesedata confirm the higher incidence of chromosomal aberrations in infertilepopulations as compared with the baseline population risk. Additionally,the data imply that in some cases of male factor infertility a hiddenfemale chromosomal factor may be present, which cannot be identified bystandard clinical evaluation. In conclusion, we recommend chromosomalanalysis in both partners of couples undergoing ICSI treatment.