Can sperm be retrieved and frozen by a sperm bank so that it can later be inserted into my wife. I am 50 years old and had a vasectomy.
Answers from doctors (4)
Yes, there are sperm banks that have donated frozen sperm for this purpose.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Yes this is possible through microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration. Percutaneous bedside approaches yield little sperm that cannot be frozen reliably
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Following a vasectomy, assuming your health is good and nothing "bad" has happened that can adversely affect sperm production (for example, chemotherapy or radiation for cancer therapy or use of anabolic steroids like testosterone), you should be making sperm just as well as you did prior to your vasectomy.
Sperm are made in the testicle, and go to the epididymis where they learn to swim and mature. Sperm can be surgically extracted from either the testicle or epididymis, often with a simple aspiration procedure with a small needle (I perform under light sedation and local anesthesia so the patient is comfortable). Surgically-extracted sperm can then be used for in vitro fertilization.
Intrauterine insemination is when ejaculated sperm are concentrated and placed into the female partners uterus. This technique called intrauterine insemination, IUI, artificial insemination, can only be performed with ejaculated sperm, and not the sperm that are surgically retrieved. The reason for this is that the numbers and motility of the sperm are not as strong as ejaculate, and the standard of care is to only perform IVF (in-vitro fertilization) with surgically extracted sperm.
If natural conception is desired, a microsurgical vasectomy reversal can be performed to allow for a couple to conceive naturally following vasectomy.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Extracted sperm can only be used with in-vitro fertilization (IVF), not intra-uterine insemination (IUI).
Published on Jul 11, 2012
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