[Hypotheses concerning variations in sperm motility in peritoneal fluid].

We have studied the effects on sperm motility in peritoneal fluid taken from fertile women at different times of the cycle as well as from sterile women in the pre-ovulatory phase. We have compared the effects on the movement of sperms in part in a solution of pure Tyrode and in part in a solution of Tyrode containing hydroxytoluene, which is an antioxydising agent, in order to try to find out the mechanism that immobilises sperms in these sterile women. In equal concentrations we have found that this substance can be protective against immobilisation, which itself was due to the liquids coming from abnormal pelvis, in the antioxydising agent that was used. Furthermore it was found, in liquid taken from the peritoneal cavities of fertile patients in the pre-ovulatory phase, that it behaves like a Tyrode medium to which one has added a complex antiperoxide comprised of bovine serum albumin and mercaptoethanol. This complex has been found to protect spermatozoa against loss of motility which leads to complete standstill when Tyrode solution alone is used after incubation for six hours under the conditions under which we conducted the experiment. From these observation it does seem to us that the female genital tract does undergo changes during the menstrual cycle which allow sperms to stay motile and that this is probably the same effect as the abumin mercaptoethanol complex. This equilibrium is broken when there are lesion in the pelvis such as endometriosis or inflammatory disease by secretion of peroxydising substances such as fatty acids and the oligopeptides that occur in inflammation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)