FERTILIZATION AND PREGNANCY USING INTENTIONALLY CRYOPRESERVED TESTICULAR TISSUE AS THE SPERM SOURCE FOR INTRACYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION IN10 MEN WITH NONOBSTRUCTIVE AZOOSPERMIA

Testicular tissue extraction (TESE) to obtain spermatozoa for use with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has recently been employed in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia. Standard protocol is to re trieve a new sample of testis tissue on the day of oocyte recovery. Un fortunately, similar to 30% of men will possess no spermatozoa in thei r tissue, making ICSI an impossibility, We investigated whether testic ular tissue that was intentionally obtained well before any planned IC SI cycle and cryopreserved could then serve as an efficacious sperm so urce in a subsequent ICSI cycle. This study reports on 10 men with non -obstructive azoospermia who did have spermatozoa found within their t estis tissue at the time of TESE and who chose to use their frozen sam ples as the source of spermatozoa for a later cycle of ICSI, In 19 cyc les the overall fertilization rate was 48%, Embryo transfer occurred i n 89% of cycles, Two couples have achieved pregnancy (one ongoing, one delivered), All patients except one had multiple vials of frozen tiss ue remaining following their first cycle, This approach is offered as an alternative to repeated testicular tissue sampling, as the availabi lity of spermatozoa is assured prior to the initiation of ovulation in duction. This tissue can be harvested at the same time as diagnostic b iopsy, thereby minimizing the number of surgical procedures.