EllingFamily:TogetherWeThrive

At age 25 many men think that their reproductive health is fairly secure for the next couple of decades and sperm banking never enters the picture, for those of us dealing with testicular cancer that is not the case.

Having just gotten married two years earlier, my wife and I's main focus was on our careers, thinking that children and starting a family was something that would come along in a few years. With the diagnosis of TC and the impending chemotherapy, the chances of having children the 'good old natural way' had been called into question. With the loss of one testicle and the other possibly being permanently effected in terms of sperm production by the rigorous chemotherapy regimen, sperm banking was an option we needed to take advantage of.

After deciding that I would be going through chemotherapy, Dr. Williams suggested that I should bank sperm if we possibly wanted children. So my wife and I decided that I would bank sperm at the University of Iowa Hospital. The whole process is kind of what you think it would be, a small container, a room with videos or magazines, and you are left to do your business.

After I had given my sample they did some testing on it to see what my level of fertility was. As it turned out my fertility was low, probably due to the orchiectomy. Anything below 20 million sperm in the sample was considered infertile, my sample graded out at 3.1 million. In addition to the fertility level being low, my sample size was also small. From my sample they could only get four vials to be frozen. Since my fertility level was so low and my sample size was also small, I decided to bank sperm a second time from which my fertility level was higher (but still considered clinically infertile) and my sample size was bigger. This time they got 7 vials to freeze. Since my fertility level was so low, we were told that for my wife to get pregnant we will probably require invitro fertilization, but one never knows what the future might bring. Next up, chemotherapy.