Sperm Freezing
Like embryos are freezing for later use, now sperm are also frozen for later use. Sperm freezing is the procedure of storing the fresh sperm in storing tank containing liquid nitrogen.
This procedure comes in practice when it was noticed that the number of infertile men increases and they are progressively infertile, it helps various couples where male partner suffer infertility issues like low sperm count, poor quality sperm and so on.
Before donating sperm, you will be screened to ensure the inherited diseases, including HIV and Hepatitis B and C.
The medium used for freezing contains cryoprotectants (glycerol) that help to remove water from the cells being frozen. In the case of low sperm count, stored sperm can be used for IVF, ICSI, where one sperm is directly injected into the egg. Generally sperm cells have been stored and thawed successfully for more than 40 years.
Semen Deposit can be an option if you:
• consider to be vasectomized (sterilized),
• are working with dangerous chemical reagents etc. and are concerned that you might damage your sperm,
• have cancer or some other disease where medical treatment (for instance chemotherapy or radiation) might sterilize you,
• are under treatment for infertility, but cannot be present at the planned time for treatment (ovulation), or if you know that you might find it difficult to ejaculate on command at the time of treatment,
• merely wish to secure your reproductive capacity.
Scientists have been freezing sperm for decades and as a result the technology for preserving and storing sperm is well defined. At Orient Hospital, we are freezing sperm samples almost every day, which are then stored frozen until they are needed. Sperm tolerate the freezing process well, although we do see some variation from patient to patient. Many patients freeze sperm for convenience (say a husband knows that he will be travelling on the day we will be performing an insemination on his wife), but for most patients there is a specific reason to freeze the sperm. We perform surgeries for some men to harvest sperm from the epididymis or testicle, and this sperm is frozen in several aliquots to help the patient avoid having to have the surgery again in the future. For others, sperm numbers are low and we try to accumulate sperm in the freezer to allow the couple to do inseminations or IVF. We also will suggest sperm freezing for any man who may be anxious about producing a sample on the day of his partner’s insemination or egg retrieval. When sperm is thawed, it is normal for some of the sperm to die. Not all cells survive freezing and thawing, but since most sperm samples have many millions of live sperm, losing a small fraction of them has little consequence. However, it is important to be aware of the expected drop in the number of live sperm after freezing so that enough sperm can be frozen up front for the purpose of having one or more pregnancies. If you reference the visual representation of the process of freezing sperm above, you will see that the sperm are stored in carefully labeled vials (1) and placed in a cooling tank (2). The vials are then placed in a tray (3), slid into a labeled storage drawer (4) and lowered into a nitrogen tank (5)
