Fertility preservation options for young boys

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Please note

This booklet is a shortened version of LN005037 ”Fertility preservation information for boys and young men: testicular tissue freezing. Information for patients, parents and carers” and should be supplied with it.

This booklet has been written to help you understand why you are being asked to think about putting some of your testicle into the freezer. Please ask your nurse specialist or doctor any questions. We are here to help.

What are testicles?

Testicles are where you make sperm when you get older. Sperm are needed to make a baby.

Image of a boy saying ‘This is where my sperm will come from’ and testicles showing sperm inside.

Some illnesses and some medicines can damage your testicles. Sometimes this stops them from being able to make sperm when you get older.

Image of a boy. The top picture shows testicles with lots of sperm in and the bottom picture shows testicles with only a few sperm in.

When we are younger we don’t always know what we will think or want when we get older. As your treatments might take away this choice for you later on we can try to save some of your testicle now.

Image of a boy day dreamer of being a dad when he is older.

Freezing your testicle

You would need to have an operation for us to freeze some of your testicle.

Image of a boy in bed after an operation with family and nursing staff.

A scientist will look after your testicle very carefully and put it in a special freezer.

Image of a scientist and a testicular tissue freezer.

What happens next?

When you wake up from the operation you might still feel sleepy and you might be a bit sore. This will get better over the next couple of days. You can have medicines if you need them to help and you might have a little scar even when everything has healed.

The doctors will come back and speak to you and the grown-ups who look after you, after the operation, and check that all of your questions have been answered.

When you are grown-up and starting to think about having your own baby, we will see you again in the fertility clinic to talk about how we can help.

Image of medical staff in front of a fertility clinic.

Will this work?

Some boys may never need to use the testicle we have frozen as they may be able to have a baby without any help from doctors and nurses. Treatment with frozen testicle is very new. We have not worked out the best way to use it yet. Scientists are still working on it. We hope it will be useful when you are older, if you are not able to have a baby with your partner by any other way. The aim is to give you choices.

What happens if I say no?

This operation is not something that will help make you better at the moment but it gives you choices in the future.
The choice you make now is important as your testicle needs to be frozen before you start any other treatment.
If you and the grown-ups who look after you decide that this is not what you want to do, that is ok and it will not affect the rest of your treatment.