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Male options before cancer treatment
In this section we discuss ways you can preserve your fertility before starting cancer treatment. It’s ideal to discuss the options with your cancer or fertility specialist at this time. For more on this, see Making decisions.
Learn more about:
Discussing your options
Some choices, such as sperm banking and radiation shielding, are well-established ways to preserve fertility. Surgically extracting sperm from the testicles is another way to store sperm for later use. The option that is right for you depends on the type of cancer you have and your personal preferences.
Ask your cancer specialist how long you have to consider your options. In many cases, you can wait a week or two before starting cancer treatment. Fertility treatments carry some risks and your doctor should discuss these before you go ahead. Keep in mind that no method works all of the time.
If you didn’t have an opportunity to discuss your options before starting cancer treatment, you can still consider your fertility later. Your choices after treatment will depend on whether you are able to produce sperm. For more on this, see Male options after cancer treatment.
All my life I had wanted to be a father. I didn’t want cancer to ruin my chances, so I stored my sperm before treatment started. I think of this as a bit of an insurance policy.
Zac
Preserving fertility in males
Sperm banking or sperm freezing (cryopreservation)
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Radiation shielding
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Testicular sperm extraction (TESE)
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Listen to our podcasts on Making Treatment Decisions and Coping with a Cancer Diagnosis
More resources
Dr Ying Li, Gynaecologist and Fertility Specialist, RPA Fertility Unit, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, NSW; Dr Antoinette Anazodo, Paediatric and Adolescent Oncologist, Sydney Children’s Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital, NSW, and Lead Clinician for Youth Cancer NSW/ACT; Paul Baden, Consumer; Dawn Bedwell, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council Queensland; Maurice Edwards, Special Counsel, Watts McCray Lawyers, NSW; Helena Green, Clinical Sexologist and Counsellor, InSync for Life, WA; Dr Michelle Peate, Program Leader, Psychosocial Health and Wellbeing Research (emPoWeR) Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Royal Women’s Hospital, The University of Melbourne, VIC; A/Prof Kate Stern, Gynaecologist and Reproductive Endocrinologist and Head, Fertility Preservation Service, Royal Women’s Hospital Melbourne, The University of Melbourne, VIC; Prof Jane Ussher, Chair, Women’s Health Psychology, Translational Health Resea ch Institute (THRI), School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, NSW; Renee Van Den Bosch, Consumer.
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