The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) Annual Meeting is taking place in Vienna this week. Today we examine an interesting abstract on the benefits of sperm freezing for young men.
In the same way that eggs from older women are less viable than those from younger women, sperm deteriorates as the male ages.
As WebMD puts it, “Men holding off on making a commitment to fatherhood could end up dealing with a diminished arsenal!”
Although this does not make much difference in terms of IVF, it certainly does if making babies the old fashioned way is preferred!
More worryingly there seems to be a potential association of older men fathering offspring with certain mental problems. Studies have linked autism and ADHD to older fathers, although the jury is very much out on this at the moment.
The good news is that a long duration of sperm freezing makes no difference to live birth rates!
A recent study in China looked at around 120,000 semen samples stored between 6 months and 15 years. They found that the frozen sperm’s survival rate after thawing DID decline. Over the 15-year study period the decline went from 85% to 74% survival.
However, most importantly this decline made little difference to the pregnancy and live birth rates in women. These samples were used for donor insemination or IVF.
The study is useful because, at the moment, many regulatory authorities set a time limit on sperm storage of 10 years. There are exceptions, such as sperm preservation before cancer treatment.
The limits were probably set because, at that time, there were fears that sperm cells might acquire DNA damage over a long period. The study therefore goes some way to alleviating those fears.
So it looks like men in the future may have the opportunity to store their ‘peak performance racing sperm’ in the same way that younger women now freeze their optimally viable eggs.
Should you consider freezing your sperm?
Again, the jury is still out. Dr. Kevin Smith, Senior Lecturer in Bioethics and Genetics at Abertay University, Dundee, a leading expert thinks it makes sense.
He said, “In principal this is something that should be considered by young people. If you were looking to store sperm, you would want to do so at as young an age as possible. Waiting until you are 30, or putting off parenthood for another 10 years, will increase the risk of DNA mutation.”
The other positive news is that the investment is unlikely to break the bank. The procedure of harvesting sperm is very easy, so the main expense is the cost of specialist freezing and maintenance of the frozen sample. With these considerations in mind, it looks like sperm freezing may soon be a growing trend for today’s young men as they move through their young adult years.
Reference: Abstract 0-018. ESHRE meeting. Vienna. June 2019.
