My son has cancer. What can he do now to preserve his fertility for the future?

Boys who have reached puberty present a unique challenge and opportunity to fertility preservation specialists. The most common procedure to preserve male fertility is the production and freezing of a semen sample, also known as “sperm banking.” This option may seem somewhat awkward to him and your family as a whole. Your son may or may not have much knowledge about reproduction, and discussing the semen collection process may not be an easy conversation for you. Know that fertility specialists and clinics can help to provide a thoughtful approach and reassuring environment for your son.

There’s no set age or point in time at which a boy will necessarily be able to provide a semen sample, but most fertility doctors will assume a boy is producing sperm if he has had a nocturnal emission (wet dream), or if he has ejaculated. If you’re not sure whether this has happened, doctors can obtain a morning urine sample to determine the presence of sperm in your son’s urine. If sperm are present, this indicates that sperm production has begun and that your son would be a candidate for sperm banking.

At this time, fertility preservation in prepubertal boys (who are not yet able to produce a sperm sample) is regarded as experimental. Suppression of testicular function with hormone therapy has not been proven successful in protecting the fertility of prepubertal boys during chemotherapy. Some boys may be candidates for a testes biopsy, in which doctors remove a small piece of the testes to identify and collect small numbers of resident sperm for freezing.

Click on the links to your right to learn more about fertility-preservation options for boys and young men.