Is male sperm storage safe?

Busy with career development, late marriage, fear of getting sick as they age, or having trouble in bed..., many men recently suddenly choose sperm storage as a key to ensuring the quality of their "breed" in the future.

Doctors perform sperm freezing at the hospital - Photo: BVCC

Is sperm storage risky and safe?

Sperm storage to proactively have children

According to statistics from the General Statistics Office, the age of first marriage of men increases every year or rather, they are getting older. In 2020, the average age of men getting married was 27.9 years old, by 2023 this number will reach 29.3 years old.

Because of late marriage, along with the increasing number of non-communicable diseases that can affect sperm quality, many men choose sperm storage as a solution.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen (35 years old, Hanoi) said he does not have a girlfriend and has no plans to get married, but last year he went to the hospital to store sperm.

Mr. Nguyen shared that due to the nature of his job, which is very stressful and often requires entertaining guests and drinking a lot of alcohol, he is worried that if he gets married late, it will be difficult to have children.

Also storing sperm, Mr. Khang (38 years old, Hanoi) plans to use this "savings" to help his wife get pregnant next year by artificial insemination. He shared that he is not worried about the quality of his sperm being reduced because he plans to work abroad for 5 years.

Speaking with Tuoi Tre, Dr. Ha Ngoc Manh - deputy director of the Vietnam-Belgium Hospital for Andrology and Infertility - said that the trend of storing sperm in men is increasing.

"Compared to 10 years ago, the number of sperm that the hospital is storing has increased 2-3 times. Men store sperm for many different reasons such as late marriage, genetic diseases, underlying diseases...", Dr. Manh shared.

Does sperm storage guarantee quality?

According to Dr. Manh, sperm freezing is a relatively simple technique. Specifically, after being collected, the sperm is stored in a suitable environment (liquid nitrogen).

Freezing time has little effect on sperm quality, even 5, 10 years or even longer still ensures quality.

"Sperm quality will be assessed before freezing. According to some studies, sperm quality is guaranteed to be 90-95% after freezing.

In addition, the stage that affects sperm quality the most is the time of freezing and thawing. When freezing sperm, the temperature must be lowered from 370C to -1960C and vice versa when thawing.

Sudden changes in temperature can affect sperm quality. Therefore, this method should be performed at reputable facilities. Currently, the cost of sperm storage ranges from 3-5 million VND/year depending on the hospital," said Dr. Manh.

In Ho Chi Minh City, there are also many medical facilities with sperm banks that support in vitro fertilization in cases where the husband has no sperm, and also sperm cryopreservation services according to medical indications.

Dr. Bui Thi Hong Nhu - Head of Social Work Department, Tu Du Hospital (HCMC) - said that sperm cryopreservation at the hospital is only performed when the patient has a doctor's prescription, complete blood test results, and semen analysis results.

Sperm cryopreservation is used to treat infertility or preserve male fertility.

Men who need to freeze sperm at the hospital are mainly those with malignant diseases - using chemicals, radiation therapy - surgery (autoimmune diseases, cancer...); working in toxic environments; unstable spermatogenesis - erectile dysfunction; the husband has difficulty collecting semen samples, the husband is away on the day the wife performs egg retrieval.

For men with low sperm motility and density (requires multiple storage as prescribed by a doctor); young men with certain diseases: mumps, early-detected cancer... need advice on sperm storage for backup.

Natural conception is best

Dr. Manh recommends that in cases where men actively store sperm not for medical treatment, they should be careful not to rely on their "savings" and "ignore" reproductive health care.

"Pregnancy is still the best way to have children naturally, so men should pay attention to reproductive health care, not abuse alcohol, tobacco... They should have a healthy lifestyle, exercise regularly to ensure general health and reproductive health in particular," said Dr. Manh.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tru-tinh-trung-cua-nam-gioi-co-an-toan-20241106220114236.htm