WASHINGTON (AP) — New research shows a painstaking surgical technique can help some men deemed infertile because of childhood cancer treatment to become fathers after all.
Young men can bank sperm before cancer treatment if they're told that treatment may render them sterile. For men who hadn't, surgeons essentially performed tiny biopsies of their testicular tissue to hunt for any pockets of hidden sperm, to be used for in vitro fertilization.
In a study of 73 men, surgeons were able to extract small amounts of sperm in just over a third of them — and 20 children eventually were born, including five pairs of twins.
Researchers caution the technique isn't for everyone. Their research was reported Monday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
