Men can donate their sperm to another person's therapy or preserve their sperm for use in the future. Before a recipient can use donated sperm, it must often be isolated for three to six months and examined for illnesses. Depending on the kind of screening tests your clinic performs, the time of confinement will vary.
What causes sperm to freeze?
You must first undergo testing for any infectious diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis. This does not affect whether you can freeze your sperm or not; rather, it ensures that contaminated sperm samples are kept apart from other samples to avoid cross-contamination.
Then, you must express your written, fully informed agreement to the storage of your sperm and state how long you want it to be kept.
The cryopreservation procedure entails:
- Regular infection screening (HIV, hepatitis and rapid plasma reagin test for syphilis).
- Giving a sample of semen or having sperm extracted.
- Quantity and quality of sperm analysis in the lab.
- Preservation of healthy sperm.
- Sperm can be kept in storage indefinitely.
Who should think about freezing their sperm, and why?
The main advantages of sperm freezing include preserving a man's fertility by using it later or giving a lesbian couple, an infertile individual, or an infertile couple a chance to conceive.
Reasons for freezing sperm frequently include:
- Age progression
- Declining sperm quality or low sperm production.
- Cancer or other illnesses.
- Pre-vasectomy patients.
- Patient transgenders.
- Career and lifestyle decisions, such as those who work in high-risk fields or who frequently travel apart from their significant others
Risks associated with sperm freezing
Natural semen sample collection carries no hazards or negative effects (through masturbation). As with any surgery, there are a few minor hazards associated with a surgical extraction, such as blood or discomfort. Since 1953, sperm freezing has been used successfully to assist people in conceiving healthy children. The procedure is secure, and standardised, and is getting better as technology develops.
Not all sperm survive the freezing and thawing processes, which is the main issue with sperm freezing. However, as most semen ejaculations contain an appropriate number of sperm, the chance of having enough healthy sperm for fertility treatments is very high. The capability of the surviving sperm cells to fertilise an embryo is not jeopardised during the freezing or thawing process.
How are sperm obtained and preserved?
Masturbation is usually how sperm (the reproductive cells contained in a man's semen) is gathered. A guy can decide whether to take his sample at home or our clinic, but only if he uses an authorised, sterile lubricant that won't compromise the quality of the sample.
To ensure the best possible specimen, males are also encouraged to refrain from sexual activity for roughly two days before the visit. Semen samples are examined for sperm quantity, shape, and movement after being given.
A surgical retrieval to remove sperm directly from the testicle is an alternative if sperm are absent from the sample or if the man is unable to ejaculate.
Conclusion
Collection, analysis, freezing, and storage of a man's sperm constitute the process of sperm freezing. The samples are later given to other people, couples, or partners of the same sex for donation or use in fertility treatments. Cryopreservation is the term used to describe the entire process, which is also known as sperm banking.
Request an appointment at Apollo Fertility in Varthur.
Call 1860 500 4424 to book an appointment
Sperm freezing is not always expensive. For sperm collection, analysis, and freezing, there is frequently a one-time fee followed by recurring storage fees. To fully understand the costs, it's important to speak with your insurance company and doctor. Storage expenses can range from $100 to $500 annually.
Since the procedure needs a specialised lab and liquid nitrogen storage tanks, you cannot freeze your sperm in a regular freezer. The option to cryopreserve your sperm without visiting a fertility centre or sperm bank is available with mail-in sperm freezing kits.
And if males want to put off having children, they should think about freezing their sperm before they turn 35. (Or at the very least by the age of 45.) For this fact, this study is not the first to find that males have a biological clock that affects their ability to become pregnant.
You can use your sperm to become pregnant in the future if you choose to have your sperm frozen. IUI or in vitro fertilisation would be the methods used to accomplish this (IVF).
No. According to research, there hasn't been a rise in the prevalence of birth abnormalities. The good news is that freezing sperm samples can be done on a budget.
Treatments
