Certain cancers and their treatment can affect fertility in men. When a person who received treatment for a cancer you want to have children, it is necessary to plan it in advance, since at some point this implies the preservation of fertility. The preservation of fertility saves or protects the sperm so that they can use to have children in the future.
Why men with cancer may need the preservation of fertility.
The possibility to keep the quality of the sperm of a man later to receive cancer treatment depends on several factors, such as: patient's age, stage of life, type of cancer, type of treatment you are undergoing, and your overall state of health. However, there are some instances in which, due to the type of cancer, it is necessary to resort to surgery where they removed the organs necessary for reproduction, and there are certain treatments that could change the hormone levels, or damage to the sperm DNA. These can cause the sperm of the man loses the capacity to fertilize the ovum of the woman (to conceive a pregnancy), or that they see problems that affect the health of a pregnancy or do not last long enough, which means that it could end in miscarriage. It is also possible that a child conceived by sperm with damaged DNA (abnormal) inherit the abnormal DNA, which sometimes results in congenital malformations. These are the cases in which the preservation of fertility becomes elemental, as these patients may lose the chance of fathering healthy children later in their treatment.
Preservation of Fertility in men
The semen freezing is an effective method of fertility preservation for men. It consists in the storage of sperm in tanks of liquid nitrogen for use in the future. Ideally should be performed prior to treatment of cancer to men who want to have children in the future.
This procedure is quite simple: the man must provide one or more samples of his semen, to which you will perform a semen analysis for measured: sperm count, motility, and morphology. Then, the sperm are frozen at ultra-low temperature, liquid nitrogen, where they retain their characteristics at the time of sampling. The semen sample can be obtained in the following ways:
- Ejaculation: or by means of masturbation.
- Urine: sometimes, the nerves necessary for the proper ejaculation of semen, or to close the valve at the entrance of the bladder are affected during surgery or by radiotherapy. When this happens, it is possible for the man to continue to produce semen, but this doesn't leave the penis at the moment of ejaculation. In contrast, the semen is expelled into the interior of the bladder, known as ejaculation retrograde. In these cases, it is possible to find sperm in the urine of these men. The sample is treated to be frozen.
- Procedure of extraction and aspiration of sperm: this is an option to collect sperm from men who have no sperm in his semen, either before or after cancer treatments. This is done by means of a testicular biopsy.
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with any type of cancer, and there is the desire to have children in the future, we invite you to agendes your appointment to explore your chances of preserving your fertility by means of the freezing of semen. In Latid Fertility Center we are pioneers in assisted reproduction, only to be endorsed by the Superior Council of Public Health. You can be confident that in Latid, these in the best of hands.
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