IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION AND INTRACYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION IN THE TREATMENT OF INFERTILITY AFTER TESTICULAR CANCER

Treatment of testicular cancer (TC) may cause infertility due to reduc ed sperm quality with or without an ejaculation problem, In cases of a nejaculation or retrograde ejaculation, spermatozoa ran be obtained by transrectal electroejaculation (TE) or testicular sperm extraction (T ESE) and used for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic spe rm injection (ICSI), In this study, 15 out of 17 couples evaluated for infertility after TC, underwent a total of 21 treatment cycles, resul ting in 18 embryo transfers, Spermatozoa were obtained by TE in 16 cyc les, by masturbation in three cycles and by TESE in one, In one cycle no spermatozoa were found using TESE, Fertilization and cleavage was a chieved by IVF in seven cycles and ICSI in 11 cycles; average fertiliz ation rates of 57 and 55% respectively were observed. Twelve clinical pregnancies occurred, of which 11 have been delivered or are ongoing, The ongoing pregnancy rate was 57% per cycle, These results show that infertility after testicular cancer can be treated effectively with IV F and that ICSI even permits treatment of patients who have severe oli gozoospermia.