This booklet has been written to help you understand the purpose and method of sperm storage. We hope that it will answer some of the questions that you may have.
We recognise that this is a difficult time and that you have had to try to understand a lot of information about your illness and the treatment that is being planned to help you to get well again. Having to think about having children is probably not a high priority.
However, we are asking you to think about as it may be crucial to giving you the opportunity to have children in the future that may not exist if you do not try to store some sperm in the next few days. We will help you to make the right decisions for you as sensitively as we possibly can.
Why am I being asked to consider storing my sperm?
You have been recommended to have treatment for an illness that could reduce or remove your own natural chance of having children (fertility). It is often difficult to know exactly what the effect of your treatment will be. It can vary depending on the type of treatment and the type of illness.
Fertility can be temporarily or permanently affected. We won’t necessarily know whether your fertility is affected until years after your treatment at which time the opportunity to store your sperm may have passed. This is why we are talking about it now. Sperm banking can enable people who may not have completed (or even started) their families to have children in the future, after treatment.
Does sperm storage work?
Generally speaking, freezing and thawing sperm is a very successful way to help, when help is required. However, it is not possible to guarantee that you will have a child one day because there are so many other factors involved in getting pregnant and having a baby that cannot be worked out at the moment and which could affect the chances of success. When stored sperm needs to be used to help a couple to have a baby, it is not unusual for test tube baby techniques (IVF) to be needed. Currently about one in four IVF treatments results in a pregnancy first time. This is likely to get better in the future. The amount of sperm needed for IVF treatment is small and sometimes couples will try more than once to achieve a pregnancy. It would be reasonable to expect about 80% of couples to have achieved a pregnancy after four attempts.
It is important
To understand that if the sperm needs to be used for fertility treatment in the future, this may not be paid for by the NHS as it will depend on your circumstances with your partner and fund rationing at the time.
What happens next?
You and your doctor in charge of your treatment will decide if it is sensible to think about sperm storage, and if there is time to do it without affecting the success of your treatment.
If it is considered sensible your doctor or nurse specialist will arrange for some screening blood tests for you:
- Hepatitis B, C and HIV screening (explained in the ‘Infection screening and transmission’ section of this leaflet).
- Contact Leeds Fertility for an urgent appointment.
An appointment will be given with a fertility doctor or advanced nurse practitioner within a few days.
At the fertility clinic a number of things will be done:
- Your screening blood test results will be checked.
- A medical history taken.
- The necessary agreements (consent forms) will be signed
- The embryologist (scientist who freezes the sperm) will see you to explain what they do. This may all occur in the same visit.
- You will be given the chance to provide a sample to be stored.
What happens after the sperm has been put away?
The fertility clinic will write to you when your sperm has been stored explaining how much has been stored and what the quality was. As time goes by the clinic needs to keep in contact with you to make sure you still need and want the sperm to be stored.
When your treatment is over, you may request an appointment to come and talk about the sperm you have stored and whether / how / when to use it. We might assess your natural fertility going forward and any issues that have arisen since your diagnosis and during your treatment. We will also talk you through the chances of your sperm surviving after freezing and thawing, to give you some idea of the possible chances of success should you need or want to use the stored sperm in the future.
We will keep in touch with you by letter over the coming years to make sure that we are doing the correct thing by keeping your sperm in storage.
- That you still want it to be kept.
- That it still needs to be kept.
- That there is funding available to keep it.
- That we are still legally allowed to keep it.
It is possible to request a sperm analysis from your GP and to ask us to interpret the result (if you send it to us). We can provide advice by telephone in specific circumstances, such as if you have moved far away from the Leeds area. Keeping in touch is most important and we are here to help.
After your sperm has been stored for nine years we need to see you in person to discuss arrangements from the tenth year onwards, as required by the Law.
The fertility clinic is the guardian of your sperm. The next section explains the responsibilities of the Clinic, your responsibilities and where we both stand legally under a variety of circumstances. Whilst these details may not seem important now, they are extremely important as time goes by, to make sure that the Clinic is able to give you accurate advice regarding the safe, long-term and legal storage of your samples.
Who pays for sperm storage?
At the beginning, the NHS (Hospital) will arrange the funding for your hospital appointments and sperm storage with your local commisioner of services (Intergrated Care Board for your GP’s Practice). Currently (2019) a storage period of up to ten years is paid for. If the sperm stays in storage beyond that time, funding needs to be organised, either by special individual request to your local ICB or by yourself. Please ask for current charges if you are interested.
We will be able to talk you through this process and apply for funding on your behalf if it is needed in the future. Your sperm is legally permitted to stay in storage for 55 years.
Important
After 10 years, a doctor needs to assess you and your fertility to determine the medical need for the storage to continue. This will involve assessing your health and fertility with another sperm analysis at the time. You must be prematurely infertile or likely to become prematurely infertile to legally justify continued storage.
Ending sperm storage
Once the samples are no longer required by you, we expect you to advise the clinic to release them from storage (allow them to perish). We can discuss this with you at any time but also expect you to keep in regular contact with us. We will be writing to you regularly to make sure your sperm still needs to be stored and you still want it to be stored.
The fertility clinic together with your other doctors, may also advise you to discard your sperm in the future in the following circumstances:
- You have completed your family and do not want to have any more children.
- Your fertility has not been compromised from your treatment after all.
If you still want to keep the samples in storage you will need to fund this yourself on a yearly basis. Please ask for the current charges at any time.
What happens if I don’t want to store sperm or I’m unable to produce a sample?
This is your decision to make with the support of your family and ourselves if needed. Nothing will change in your other treatment if you decide not to store any sperm. We can still see you after treatment if you and your lead doctor agreed that you wanted to know whether the treatment had affected your fertility. We would need you to provide us a semen sample to be able to give you this information.
If you are not able to produce a sample on that day then we could rearrange the appointment as long as it was not causing a delay to your treatment. This will be your choice.
Is there anyone else I can talk to?
We know there is a lot of information to take in and this is a difficult time. Some people find it helpful to talk to someone who is not a close family member, friend or doctor / nurse involved in their treatment about how they feel and the decisions they are being asked to take. Leeds Fertility can offer experienced counsellors to discuss fertility-related issues at any time including the distant future. If you would like to talk to them now, please ask and we will arrange an appointment as soon as possible. It may need to be after you have stored your sperm samples.
Regulation of Sperm storage
The storage of gametes (which include sperm) is controlled by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990 and there are a number of guidelines and requirements that must be met before gametes can be stored. It is important that all those involved i.e. the patient, the referring doctor and the unit staff fully understand and comply with the Law.
Storage of mature sperm for your own use
The following information is for your guidance.
- Your right to confidentiality in this Act prohibits the normal exchange of information between clinicians without specific written consent unless it is deemed necessary for your continuing medical care.
- Before consenting to the storage of sperm you will receive verbal and written information and may wish to receive further counselling regarding the implications of taking the proposed steps.
- Anyone consenting to storage of their sperm must give their consent in writing prior to the storage.
Sperm should not be taken from anyone who is not capable of giving their consent. A person under 18 years old can, in exceptional circumstances, give consent if it is the intention to use the sperm solely for their own treatment and in their life time. It is not essential to obtain the consent of their parent or guardian under these circumstances although we always endeavour to do so. The sperm must be discarded if the patient does not recover from their illness.
Consent
The consent must specify one or more of the following:
- Whether the treatment is provided for yourself, or yourself and a named partner.
- Whether any sperm obtained can be used for research.
- The legal maximum period of storage is 55 years, allowed only with regular follow-up with a reproductive medicine medical practitioner.
- What is to be done with the sperm in the event of your death or if you becoming incapable of changing or withdrawing your consent. This is a legal requirement.
– You may request that it is allowed to perish.
– You may donate it for research.
– Your named partner could be able to use it.
– You can not donate it for the treatment of anyone else.
Special notes on the use of sperm after death (Posthumous use):
A difficult situation can arise if a female partner returns to the unit after their male partner has died and they wish to use the stored samples.
This is why we ask you, and document your wishes, about what happens to your sample if you were to die. This makes sure that we can carry out your wishes for your sample.
Legal Parenthood in the event of posthumous use of sperm
All patients considering the possible use of their sperm after their death will need a counselling appointment to consider the implications fully. These might include:
- How a child might feel to know that he or she was conceived after your death.
- Your reasons for leaving a legacy.
- The impact on your partner of having a child who may never know or remember you.
- What practical / emotional / financial support may be in place after you have gone.
- Who may be a father figure for your child.
Whenever sperm is used after death, the man to whom the sperm belongs must have told us his wishes on a written consent form before any treatment starts.
The fertility clinic is legally required to consider the rights of the unborn child/children in deciding whether or not to conduct treatment.
In order to be legally recognised as the father of a child born after a man has died, he must have completed the birth registration details on the HFEA form before his death. We can guide you and your family through this if necessary.
Infection screening and transmission
It is our policy to screen all patients, donors and recipients for HIV and Hepatitis B and C, prior to sperm storage because there is a very small possible risk of cross-infection when unscreened samples are stored in the same containers. However, it is important to note that such an incident has never been reported.
At the moment we are unable to offer treatment services locally to individuals who test positive to HIV, Hepatitis B and C.
Power Failure
Whilst we take every effort to maintain the safety of your stored samples we must warn you of the small yet possible risk of power failure to the storage tanks leading to loss of your stored sample. This risk is lowered by the fact that storage facilities are alarmed and equipped with back up temporary power in the event of failure and there are on-call teams available however this does not completely remove the risk of sample loss.
We hope that this provides you with all of the information you will need. Please ask if you have further questions or concerns. Specialist counselling can be arranged when needed.
Glossary
- Epidiymis: Where the sperm are stored inside the body, next to the testis.
- Fertility: The ability to have children.
- IVF: In Vitro Fertilisation – when eggs and sperm are put together in a dish in a laboratory to help achieve a pregnancy (test tube baby treatment).
- Prostate Gland: Produce fluid that the sperm are released in.
- Seminal vesicles: Produce fluid that the sperm are released in.
- Sperm: The ‘seeds’ that contain the male half of the genes (code that makes each person unique).
- Sperm banking: Putting sperm samples into a special medical freezer to save for later. Sperm can be frozen for decades, if necessary and still work normally when they are defrosted.
- Testis: Where the sperm are made: balls.
Useful resources
Contact us
Fertility Preservation Team Centre for Reproductive Medicine
For administrative queries (Monday – Friday 08.00-17.00)
