Sperm Banking
You may not be thinking about becoming a father at this time; in fact, you may have no plans whatsoever for becoming a father. Regardless of how you currently feel, this is something you need to consider at this time. It is something that is simple to do and might save you significant mental and emotional anguish in the future.
You have been diagnosed with cancer and will be undergoing medical treatment that may affect your ability to father a child in the future. In order to ensure that you at least have the opportunity to father your own child, you now need to seriously consider sperm banking.
Why consider banking sperm before cancer treatment begins?
For the patient approaching cancer treatment, banking sperm is a way to put one significant issue out of your mind. Having even one sample of frozen sperm stored in the sperm bank, means the chance of having a biological child in the future, no matter what happens to your own fertility. With modern techniques of infertility treatment (in vitro fertilization using an injection of a single sperm cell into each egg), only a few live sperm cells need to survive the freezing and thawing process in order to create a pregnancy. If a man has good sperm quality and can freeze several semen samples (3 to 6), the couple may be able to achieve pregnancy using less extreme infertility treatments, such as artificial insemination. Although many men have abnormal sperm counts even before any cancer treatment is begun, it is still worthwhile to freeze the sperm, before the start of any treatment. Remember, you can always defrost in the future.
Sperm banking is a procedure whereby your sperm are collected before you undergo any treatment for your cancer. The sperm are frozen and kept in storage. Should you decide to father a child in the future and it is determined that your fertility has been affected by your cancer treatment, sperm banking will at least provide you with a chance to father your own children. It may turn out that your fertility is restored after your cancer treatment. While this would be ideal, there is no guarantee this will occur. You should consider the option of sperm banking and discuss any questions or concerns you have with your doctor. Your wife or partner should also be considered in the discuss