Two dangerous diseases attack men's sperm

Mumps and cancer are two diseases that seriously affect the quality and quantity of sperm in men.

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Dr. Nguyen Manh Ha, Head of the Department of Tissue and Embryology, Hanoi Medical University; Deputy Director of the Center for Assisted Reproduction and Tissue Transplant Technology, said that among the reasons why couples cannot have children, 35% are due to the husband. The main cause is related to sperm (quantity and quality).

Below are two diseases that seriously affect men's sperm:

Mumps

Mumps is one of the most dangerous diseases in men. At the Center for Assisted Reproduction and Tissue Transplant Technology, Dr. Ha and his colleagues have encountered many men with mumps who came to the clinic with significantly reduced sperm quality.

To avoid the worst possible scenario, especially for adult men, this doctor advises those with mumps symptoms to go for a thorough examination and check-up.

If mumps is found to have complications such as orchitis, men should consider freezing sperm at a sperm bank. When they want to have children, they can take this sperm to perform assisted reproductive measures.

“At the center, many mumps cases come for testing and sperm donation. For patients with no sperm left in the epididymis, we have to biopsy the vas deferens to find sperm and save the “seed” for them,” Dr. Ha shared.

Statistics at the center show that many cases of men with abnormal, weak, deformed sperm or ejaculation without sperm have a history of mumps.

Cancer

Men with cancer also need to store sperm. According to Dr. Ha, cancer does not affect sperm, but treatments for this disease (chemotherapy, radiotherapy) will directly and negatively affect them. Patients are forced to keep the best sperm before proceeding with treatment. However, this is not something many people think about.

At the Center for Assisted Reproduction and Tissue Transplant Technology, Dr. Ha has just successfully supported sperm freezing for a male patient with liver cancer.

The husband is quite young and has advanced liver cancer. When he discovered the disease, he decided to freeze his sperm so that his wife could get pregnant later. After successfully collecting semen, he agreed to treatment. Now, his wife is pregnant thanks to the sperm sample sent to the center. The child is a great motivation for him to get treatment.

Sperm samples were frozen in liquid nitrogen tanks at -196 degrees Celsius, carefully numbered and named. Photo: Viet Hung.

According to Dr. Ha, sperm freezing is a fairly easy technique, and 23 fertility centers across the country can do it. Men will be tested to rule out infectious diseases as well as assess sperm quality. Then, they will collect sperm samples themselves in masturbation rooms.

In cases where there is no sperm in the semen, the doctor will use a technique of aspiration from the epididymis or testicular tissue to obtain sperm.

The sperm is quickly placed in an incubator for the sample to lyse, usually for about 30 minutes. The sperm sample is carefully examined in a sterile laboratory. The qualified sample that can be frozen will be notified to the owner to complete the paperwork before being placed in a storage container. Frozen sperm can be stored for many years. When necessary, they will be thawed and assisted reproductive measures will be carried out.

Sperm samples are frozen in liquid nitrogen tanks at -196 degrees Celsius, carefully numbered and named. Each man can have multiple sperm samples, depending on the quantity and quality when collected.

Dr. Ha said that men can store sperm for several decades. In the world, there has been a baby successfully conceived from sperm that was stored for up to 20 years.

In Vietnam, the cost of sperm preservation is very cheap. In the first year, patients have to pay 3 million VND and about 1.7 million VND in maintenance fees each year.

According to Zing