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After you receive prostate cancer
treatment you may no longer be able to father a child.
For some men, this makes little difference in their
lives as they may have already had children and do not
want anymore or they simply do not plan on having children.
However, with an increase in the amount of men being
diagnosed at earlier ages, more men are becoming concerned
with issues of fertility.
A semen analysis should be performed for any adult male who is concerned about fertility. Most hospitals and clinics can perform these analyses in their urology departments. Check to see if your health insurance will cover the cost. If it does not then check with the hospital or clinic to find out what the procedure will cost. When you obtain the results and discover that your sperm count is low or there is no sperm found in the sample, consult your physician to determine if sperm aspiration would be beneficial.
Due to advancements in infertility techniques, surgeons have been able to locate areas of active sperm production in the testicles. Once a sample is retrieved, a sperm count is measured. If found suitable for in vitro fertilization, the sperm is frozen and stored until needed. In vitro fertilization takes the stored sperm and the egg, combines the two in a laboratory dish creating an embryo, which is implanted in the woman’s uterus to develop naturally. Currently, there are four different techniques to obtain sperm.
- MESA (microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration) is considered a safe procedure that allows for the recovery of the best quality and highest quantity of sperm.
- Microsurgical Testicular Sperm Extraction identifies rare regions of sperm production and limits the amount of testicular tissue lost, actually increasing the amount of sperm retrieved.
- TESE (testicular sperm extraction) is an open procedure performed under direct vision, minimizing potential complications.
- TESA (testicular sperm aspiration) is a needle biopsy of the testicle and considered by many physicians to be inferior to TESE in all regards.
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