Fertility Laboratory
PATIENT INFORMATION SHEET
Fertility and cancer treatment: advice for men
It is important that you discuss the effects of your cancer and its treatment on fertility with your doctor before you start chemotherapy or radiotherapy because most cancer treatments can affect fertility.
Chemotherapy drugs often cause either temporary or permanent infertility. This depends on the drugs used and the dose received. Chemotherapy may also affect your sex drive. This is usually a temporary problem which recovers without treatment. Occasionally sexual problems persist, in which case counselling or, rarely, hormone replacement therapy may be required.
Radiotherapy will cause infertility only if the testis is within or close to the area that is within the radiotherapy treatment beam. Sexual function is rarely affected unless high dose treatments are given to the pelvis (usually for cancer of the prostate).
Surgery is not usually a cause of infertility. If however both testes are removed, or one testis is removed and the remaining testis is abnormal, then infertility may result. Occasionally, problems with ejaculation (dry ejaculation) may occur following extensive abdominal surgery. This is a particular problem in patients with testicular cancer who are undergoing abdominal surgery after chemotherapy. Sexual function is rarely affected. However, impotence can occur after extensive pelvic operations (eg for cancer of the lower bowel, bladder or prostate).
Storing Sperm
If your treatment is likely to result in infertility you may wish to have some of your sperm stored before the treatment begins, and your doctor will be able to arrange this. Before banking sperm you must not have sex (or ejaculate) for at least two days. Sperm samples will be produced by yourself, by hand (masturbation) at a special centre. Measures will be taken to ensure maximum privacy. Generally 1 – 5 samples are collected at two- to three-day intervals. Frozen sperm can be safely stored by anyone for up to 10 years. It can be stored for a longer period (up until the individual is 55 years of age) under certain legal conditions. If required, this sperm can be used to fertilise your wife or partner in order to achieve a pregnancy.
Unfortunately, a number of people are unable to produce sperm for storage. In a few of these cases fertility will recover despite treatment, but if this were not to occur it is still possible for a woman to achieve a pregnancy by using the sperm from an anonymous donor in a specialist centre.
Contraception during anti-cancer treatment
During your treatment it is alright to continue having sex. However, because these treatments can damage your sperm it is strongly recommended that you use contraception throughout treatment and for at least 4 months (but preferably for 1 year) after it has finished. This is because although your ability to father a child may have recovered, the sperm that are produced may be damaged. The amount of fluid ejaculated will not tell you anything about the number of sperm, so at the end of one year you may wish to ask your doctor to check your sperm to see if it has recovered.
We hope you find this information useful, but feel free to ask your doctor for any further details.
You can obtain further information about sperm banking from the HFEA, which is the national body for overseeing the rules and regulations that apply to fertility services.
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)
Paxton House
30 Artillery Lane
London E1 7LS
Tel: 0207 377 5077
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