UTILIZATION OF CRYOPRESERVED SEMEN IN TUMOR PATIENTS

Treatment with cytotoxic drugs or with radiation in order to manage a tumor or another life-threatening disease involves a potential hazard to male fertility. In these cases cryopreservation of semen is recomme nded. However, the number of patients requesting the subsequent insemi nation of their partner is rather low. It would be of interest if pati ents with a high probability for desiring use of the cryodeposit for i nsemination could be identified. During. the years 1985-1992 we perfor med cryopreservation in 29 patients attending our department. One year following cryopreservation the utilization of the cryodeposit was ana lyzed: 29 patients were not interested in further maintenance, 2 patie nts died, 3 patients requested use for insemination, 31 patients decid ed to maintain the semen further in a commercial cryobank, 17 patients had a complete restitution of spermatogenesis within the observation period. In 7 patients the interval is yet below 1 year. The different modes of utilizing the cryodeposit were analyzed in relation to the se men quality, age, status, kind of disease and primary treatment. None of these factors possibly influencing the utilization showed differenc es between the groups. We conclude that it is impossible to predict th e probability of the use of a cryodeposit of semen based on the examin ed patient characteristics at the time of preservation. We plan to fur ther on offer semen preservation to all patients requiring it in a sit uation of threatened fertility, bearing in mind that the relative cost s of the cryopreservation are low.