Testicular sperm cryopreservation for male fertility preservation

Objective:To investigate the effectiveness of testicular sperm cryopreservation in male fertility preservation by evaluating the clinical outcome of ICSI cycles with frozen-thawed testicular sperm for azoospermia patients.Methods:We retrospectively analyzed 96 samples of cryopreserved testicular sperm obtained by testicular biopsy,vasovasostomy(V-V),vasoepididymostomy(V-E),of which 55 were subjected to 60 ICSI cycles with frozen-thawed testicular sperm.We evaluated the rates of sperm recovery,fertilization,cleavage,transferable and good-quality embryos,clinical pregnancy,pregnancy outcome,and health of the newborns.Results:All the frozen testicular sperm samples were recovered successfully.The rates of fertilization,2PN fertilization,cleavage,available embryos and good-quality embryos were 77.6,69.4,99.4,84.5 and 40.8%,respectively.There were transferable embryos in all cycles.Fresh embryos were transferred in 52 of the 60 cycles,with the clinical pregnancy rate of 57.7%(30/52),including 19 singletons and 11 twins,and the rates of implantation and miscarriage were 38.7%(41/106) and 3.33%(1/30).Up to the present time,there have been 20 healthy newborns,including 12 boys and 8 girls,and another 13 ongoing pregnancies.No birth defects have been found so far.Conclusion:Desirable clinical outcomes can be obtained from ICSI cycles with frozen-thawed testicular sperm,and testicular sperm cryopreservation is an effective method of fertility preservation for azoospermia males.