Which assisted reproductive technologies might help a man whose cancer treatments greatly damage his sperm?

November 27th, 2008 | Tags: , ,
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cancer treatments
Jack asked:


Please explain your answer.

  1. Chem Man
    November 30th, 2008 at 03:10
    Reply | Quote | #1

    Unlike women, men have an advantage. They constantly regenerate sperm throughout their life. Your sperm may be damaged now, but just wait. A few weeks after your treatments, your sperm will be good as new… assuming you don’t have testicular cancer (in which case, your count will be low). Just wait, you are indeed blessed to be a male. Cancer treatments (Chemo, Radiation, etc.) don’t have long term effects on future sperm. Your sperm count may be a little lower for the rest of your life, but it just means you have to wait a little longer for future children.

    Consider yourself blessed and just wait a few weeks after your treatments are finished.

  2. BrokenMirror
    December 3rd, 2008 at 04:57
    Reply | Quote | #2

    I have to disagree. Chemotherapy, especially high-dose, and radiation are strongly mutagenic. Sperm counts may go back up (not in all patients) but the quality of sperm may be low.

    The recommendations for the patients in this case are:
    1) to store multiple samples of frozen sperm before treatment begins; 2) choose therapy, e.g., chemotherapeutic agent and its dose, that causes least damage to the fertility.

    More details are below:

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