Everything you always wanted to know about sperm DNA fragmentation testing
Sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) testing has been widely recognized as a potentially useful tool in aiding clinicians with the assessment of men with infertility. However, there has been much debate over its clinical utility and application during a male factor workup.
In this issue of Translational Andrology and Urology, guidelines for SDF testing as proposed by Dr. Agarwal and colleagues (1) are further examined and discussed by an international panel of invited authors with corresponding responses to their specific commentaries by the guest editors, Drs. Ashok Agarwal, Ahmad Majzoub, Sandro Esteves and Chak-Lam Cho. These articles represent a unique opportunity to read commentaries by clinicians and specialists practicing in every part of the world (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania) with responses tailored to each author’s specific challenges and difficulties with utilization of SDF testing.
The editors perform a tremendous job of answering each authors’ concerns as related to SDF testing since there is not a consensus of its use among the guidelines published by the European Association of Urology (EAU), American Urological Association (AUA) and American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). I believe the readers will greatly benefit from this interactive dialogue and have a better understanding of what SDF is, its negative impact on male fertility and how information regarding SDF can be used as a valuable tool towards improving fertility outcomes for our couples trying to achieve pregnancy.
Acknowledgements
None.
References
- Agarwal A, Majzoub A, Esteves SC, et al. Clinical utility of sperm DNA fragmentation testing: practice recommendations based on clinical scenarios. Transl Androl Urol 2016;5:935-50. [Crossref] [PubMed]
