Dr. Kusum Gupta Nursing Home | Akansha Test Tube Baby Center

What is Sperm Freezing?

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What is Sperm Freezing?

Just like freezing an embryo or an egg, we can freeze semen or sperm for later use This technique is in use since 1953. In most cases, sperms or semen is frozen to use them in the future to become a father. It is completely a couple’s or an individual’s choice if they wish to store the sperm.

A lot of couples choose to freeze their sperms when they wish to plan a family in the coming future. Sperm freezing helps to resolve the infertility issue along with providing an option to have your own biological child in future.

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In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

Who needs sperm freezing?

There are different reasons for which a man may want to freeze his sperm sample. Some of these reasons are:

  • If a person wants to delay having a child to a later age.
  • If he has been diagnosed with cancer and has to undergo treatment. Treatment for cancer and chemotherapy leads to a decline in sperm number and quality. It is recommended to get sperms frozen before starting cancer treatment. Men with low sperm count also choose to store their sperm sample as just a few healthy sperms will be enough to result in fertilization in the future.
  • Men who are undergoing vasectomy, travel more often, or are working in the military can choose to store their sperm in order to become fathers anytime in the coming future.
  • Men before undergoing gender change may wish to store sperms before undergoing the surgery. Sperm freezing helps such men to preserve their fertility and can be able to help conceive in the future.

2. Sperm freezing process

Pre workup: We investigate to rule out infections like HIV, HbsAg, HCV, and other medical conditions like Diabetes and Thyroid issues among a few others initially.

Informed consent is taken from the person regarding what needs to be done to the sperm in case one is not alive to take a decision.

The process of sperm freezing starts with collecting the sample of semen from the patient. A patient collects the semen in a collection bottle by masturbation. Before doing this, patients are asked to avoid sexual activity for at least two days before collecting the sample. This ensures the best quality of semen Surgical aspiration of sperms can be done if the man fails to ejaculate sperms.

After the collection, a detailed semen analysis is done to know about quantity and quality, and the movement and shape of sperms.

After the complete analysis, the semen sample is separated into multiple segments and is stored with the help of specialized cryoprotectant agents. These agents will help the sperm to be in its best condition for many years.

Semen is stored in cryocans under liquid nitrogen @ temperature of -195 degree C.

Sperm freezing risks

Sperm freezing is a safe and specialized procedure that is in use for a long time now. As technology is increasing, it is becoming safer and standardized.

The ejaculated semen sample has a lot of sperms so there are high chances that a good amount of sperms will survive. It is important to know that not all the sperms survive the entire freezing and thawing process. Also, the process of freezing or thawing doesn’t affect the sperm’s ability to fertilize an egg.

Cryopreservation is an advanced procedure with no time limit of how long you wish to freeze the sperms. Generally, sperms are frozen for 10 years though in the past cases, healthy babies were born with the help of sperms that were stored for 20 years.