Loma Linda Fertility specialist led sperm fragmentation study.
Dr. Gihan Bareh, a fertility specialist at Loma Linda University Center for Fertility and IVF, found in a recently published National Institutes of Health study that sperm with damaged DNA most likely correlates to an increased risk of recurrent pregnancy loss.
Sperm fragmentation occurs when the DNA within sperm is damaged or abnormal. Loma Linda University Center for Fertility and IVF includes sperm fragmentation tests in fertility assessments even though this is not a national standard or requirement.
The study collected sperm samples from from two groups of males. The first group included men who had experienced recurrent pregnancy loss with their partners and the other group included men with proven fertility. Recurrent pregnancy was more frequent in the group of men with sperm fragmentation. The study found that sperm DNA fragmentation may play a role in unexplained pregnancy loss despite normal semen analysis parameters.