Incubation of semen with human follicular fluid improves the antioxidant status and quality of spermatozoa after freezing–thawing

Sperm freezing is a useful method in clinics to preserve fertility in people who are affected by some problems such as diseases or chemotherapy which decrease their fertility. Although various studies are focused on optimizing this method, some challenges decrease the efficiency of this method. Oxidative stress has been reported as one of the mechanisms inducing negative effects on sperm during freezing-thawing. Therefore, the use of cryoprotectants and also some antioxidants has been suggested to increase sperm quality during freezing-thawing. In this study, we used human follicular fluid before freezing to assess sperm parameters. Our results showed that follicular fluid with antioxidant properties and other proper factors can have positive effects on human sperm during freezing-thawing and could be proposed to be added to the sperm freezing medium to improve sperm parameters, although this suggestion needs to be confirmed by further experiments.