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Ascension and penetration tests were applied to 60 sterile patients for assessment of spermatozoan migration. Ascension tests were positive in 16 cases and penetration tests in 22. Ten sterile women produced positive responses to either test. Pregnancy rates were high in the cases with positive ascension tests, but highest when both tests were positive. Negative test results were attributable primarily to andrological factors, pathological conditions in the cervix or to impaired tubal patency on account of adhesions.

Sera from 150 infertile and 50 fertile couples were examined for circulating anti-genital organ antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence test on unfixed cryostat sections from various organs and methanolfixed smears of spermatozoa. -- Antibodies to spermatozoa showed an acrosomal, equatorial, postnuclear or tail immunofluorescence pattern. -- Antibodies to the ovary were directed to theca folliculi and to stromal antigens. Antibodies to the Fallopian tube reacted with the apical parts of the epithelial cells. Antibodies to endometrium and cervix were directed to glandular epithelium or mucosal stroma and antibodies to placenta reacted with trophoblast cells or amnion epithelium. Testicular antibodies were directed to tunica propria or the germinal epithelium. -- Antibodies to epididymis stained the mucous membrane epithelium, basal cells, the tunica propria or epididymal spermatozoa. Antibodies to the prostate and seminal vesicles reacted with glandular epithelium or stroma. -- Autoimmune mechanisms may play diverse roles in the pathogenesis of dysfunction of female and male genital organs.

Hydrotubation is a conservative method to cope with complete or partial tubal occlusion. Hydrotubation was applied postsurgically to 60 women and as primary treatment to another 72 women, all patients suffering from primary and secondary sterility. - Minor complications, including abdominal pain, were recorded from 15 patients. Pregnancy occurred to 13, among them eleven who had received postsurgical hydrotubation.

Sera of 100 infertile women and of 100 patients with early pregnancy as control group were investigated for antibodies to zona pellucida by the indirect immunofluorescence. Zonae of oocytes from pigs were used for the procedure. A positive control serum with a high titer was produced by immunization of rabbits with an antigen from pig zonae. The frequency of antibodies to zona pellucida was 29% for infertile patients and 18% in the control group. The titers of these autoantibodies were higher in infertile than in fertile women. There was no increase of these antibodies if the age increased and no relation to the menarche and the ovulation. Antibodies to zona pellucida were demonstrated frequently in patients with disturbances of cycle, free Fallopian tubes, secondary infertility, and ovarian and unknown origin of infertility.

The results obtained from penetration testing of cervical mucus of 60 sterile couples are reported in this paper. Also, the presence of spermatozoal antibodies in the serum of both the female and male probands was detected by means of the immunofluorescence method. --Neither in the females nor males was any relationship detectable between the occurrence of spermatozoal antibodies and the results of penetration testing. Yet, spermatozoal antibodies were found to occur much more often in probands with sterility of unelucidated origin.