BORN 22 YEARS AFTER CRYOPRESERVATION

Loss of fertility is one of the most frequent consequences for patients undergoing treatments with chemotherapy and/or radiation for cancer. When the disease occurs at young age, that is when the patient has not yet achieved his or her desire for maternity or paternity, the inability to have biological children may cause great sense of deprivation and frustration.
Just recently the news reported that in the United States a 39 year old man, that had become sterile because of cycles of treatments with chemotherapy and radiotherapy for Leukemia when he was a teenager, had his sperm deposited and frozen in a fertility bank when he was 17.
On February 25, he became father of a little girl, Stella, fully proving that there can be life after cancer.
The frozen semen sample was delivered to Xytex International Ltd. of Atlanta, on April 25, 1986. Just 22 years later, on June 12, 2008, the semen was thawed and made available by the Reproductive Endocrinology Associates, fertility clinic of Charlotte, North Carolina. It was later used for the fertilization of an egg of his wife, a woman of 33 years.
Cryopreservation is based on three fundamental steps: 1) the spermatozoa are selected according to their "vitality", 2) The semen is placed in test tubes and stored in liquid nitrogen at 196 degrees below zero, 3) later, the semen is gradually brought to physiological temperature, and the sperm is used to fertilize the female egg in vitro.
Although the semen of this man remained frozen for 22 years, beating the previous record of 21 years, according to experts there is no increased risk of genetic abnormalities, or future health problems for Stella.
It must be stressed that in the meantime, science has made great strides. In fact, at the time when the sperm of the boy was frozen, the technique of assisted fertilization that made possible the birth of Stella did not even exist.
The technique of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), allows to select a healthy sperm cell and insert it into an egg in the laboratory. This technique was tested successfully the first time in the lab in 1992.
This American couple has chosen to freeze 5 embryos. It is therefore not excluded that in the future Stella could have brothers or sisters.
This case may represent a hope for many patients, who, even after being subjected to treatment for cancer, can fulfill their desire to have children like everyone else.