Sperm freezing is a technique that allows us to preserve male fertility without time limits so that it can be used in the future with assisted reproduction techniques.
When is it useful?
- For patients who have to undergo treatments that may reduce or destroy their fertility (testicle or prostate surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy).
- When it is difficult to obtain a sperm sample for assisted reproduction treatment, for both psychological and logistical reasons.
Progressive deterioration of sperm quality due to a known or unknown cause. - Oligozoospermia (low quality sperm with reduced motility).
- Prior to having a vasectomy in case you would like to become a father in the future.
- Due to infected samples (HIV, hepatitis) after sperm washing.
Procedure
- Preparation: before cryopreservation we will need to determine the risk of infection by taking a blood sample to check for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B and C.
- Collecting the sample: the patient will bring a sperm sample to the clinic in person. We recommend 3 to 5 days of abstinence.
- Analysis: the sample will be analysed in the lab and the patient will be informed as to whether or not the sample is sufficient, or if he will need to bring in another sample in order to have a sufficient amount of spermatozoa.
- Freezing: the sample is prepared with cryoprotectors and the temperature is lowered gradually before being stored in liquid nitrogen at -196ºC.
The sperm can remain frozen for as long as necessary. Freezing does not affect the quality of the sperm sample. For men with poor quality sperm, some sperm parameters may be abnormal. Numerous studies show that assisted reproduction treatment results are the same as those obtained using fresh sperm.
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