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Abstract
Opinion is divided on the clinical usefulness of the postcoital (Sims-Huhner) test
in diagnosing infertility. To evaluate the validity of this test, we reviewed the
world's literature in English and calculated four indexes of validity for each study
with sufficient information. The sensitivity of the test ranged from 0.09 to 0.71,
specificity from 0.62 to 1.00, predictive value of abnormal from 0.56 to 1.00, and
predictive value of normal from 0.25 to 0.75. In addition to the problem of poor validity,
the test suffers from a lack of standard methodology, lack of a uniform definition
of normal, and unknown reproducibility. The postcoital test lacks validity as a test
for infertility.
Key words
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© 1990 Mosby. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
