Fertility Preservation
Hope Healing Happiness
in Fertility Care
Fertility preservation means medical steps taken now to save or protect reproductive potential so a person can try to have biological children later. That includes freezing eggs, sperm, embryos, or ovarian/testicular tissue, plus surgical or medical ways to shield gonads from damage.Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) is an advanced fertility treatment used within the process of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
Fertility Preservation
What is Fertility Preservation ?
Fertility preservation means medical steps taken now to save or protect reproductive potential so a person can try to have biological children later. That includes freezing eggs, sperm, embryos, or ovarian/testicular tissue, plus surgical or medical ways to shield gonads from damage.
Causes / Why People Need It ?
- Cancer treatments (chemotherapy, pelvic radiation) that harm eggs or sperm.
- Major surgery that removes or damages reproductive organs
- Medical conditions (e.g., severe endometriosis, autoimmune disease, sickle cell disease needing transplant).
- Planned gender-affirming hormone/surgical care.
- Occupational or environmental exposures (radiation, toxins).
- Elective reasons, delaying childbearing for personal/career reasons (age-related decline).
When It’s Considered ?
- At diagnosis of cancers or before other gonadotoxic therapy, immediate referral to fertility specialists is recommended so preservation can be planned without unnecessary treatment delay.
- If a planned surgery may remove or injure reproductive tissue.
- When a person wants to delay pregnancy and wishes “insurance” against age-related decline.
- For children/adolescents facing therapy that risks future fertility (tissue freezing options).
- For transgender patients before starting hormones or surgery.
Benefits
- Keeps the option of biological children open
- Reduces anxiety for patients facing fertility-threatening treatments.
- Many methods have good success when performed appropriately and early.
Types
- Egg (oocyte) freezing
- Embryo freezing (IVF + freeze embryos)
- Sperm freezing (semen cryopreservation; surgical retrieval if needed)
- Ovarian tissue cryopreservation (and later reimplantation)
- Gonadal shielding / ovarian transposition and medical suppression (GnRH agonists) as adjunct strategies
- Counseling and oncofertility coordination
General Procedure
- Rapid multidisciplinary counseling (oncology + fertility).
- Baseline tests (hormones, ovarian reserve, infectious disease screen).
- Choose the method best for age, time available, partner/donor status.
- Collect gametes/tissue (stimulation/retrieval or surgical biopsy or semen collection).
- Cryopreserve (vitrification or controlled freezing) and long-term storage in liquid nitrogen.
- Later thaw/use with ART (IUI/IVF/ICSI) or reimplant tissue.
Results
- Outcomes depend strongly on age (especially for eggs), number/quality of preserved gametes, the treatment that caused damage, and the method used later (IUI, IVF, ICSI).
- Some methods (sperm, embryos) have long, proven track records; others (ovarian tissue) are newer but increasingly successful.
- Not every preserved sample will produce a pregnancy; counseling about probabilities is essential.
