Table 1.

Comparation of different sperm separation methods.

Method	Advantages	Disadvantages
CSW	- Easy to perform - Purified recovery of highly motile spermatozoa	- Low yield - Increased spermatozoa damaged by ROS - Decreased normally chromatin-condensed spermatozoa
DGC	- Purified recovery of highly motile spermatozoa - High yield - Cell debris and leukocytes are largely decreased - ROS are significantly reduced	- More time-consuming - Potential risk of endotoxins - Difficulty in stable pH and temperature
MACS	- Sperm with high quality - Maintain nuclear DNA integrity - Separation of non-apoptotic sperm	- Uncertain improvement in pregnancy rates - PS externalization may happen after acrosome reaction - The impact of microbeads on ICSI
HA	- Purified mature sperm - Mimic a natural selection - More sperm with normal morphology - Lower level of DNA fragmentation and rates of chromosomal aneuploidy	- Insufficient studies to confirm that it improves pregnancy rate - Requirement of experienced embryological skills

CSW, conventional swim-up; DGC, density gradient centrifugation; HA, hyaluronic acid; ICSI, intracytoplasmic sperm injection; MACS, magnetic activated cell sorting; PS, phosphatidylserine; ROS, reactive oxygen species.