Exploring Sperm Freezing: How It Works and Who Can Benefit
Freezing your sperm can preserve your fertility, while helping individuals and couples to manage their fertility, on their preferred timeline. Before undergoing this process, it’s best to familiarize yourself with what’s involved. You can then prepare, ensuring the safety and security of your sample.
The Benefits of Sperm Freezing
Many individuals and couples find that sperm freezing, also known as sperm banking or cryopreservation, can be beneficial for their family-building goals for a variety of reasons. For example, men may freeze their sperm if they’re undergoing cancer treatment, like chemotherapy or radiation therapy, or if they’re taking medications that impact fertility, like testosterone replacement. It may also be utilized before a vasectomy, allowing men to conceive in the future while still enjoying all the advantages of having a vasectomy. Sperm freezing is also a great option for men who work in high-risk careers, such as the military.
The Sperm Freezing Processes, Explained
The sperm freezing process is pretty straightforward. After abstaining from sexual activity (including masturbation) for 2-5 days before the collection to maximize sample quality, the specimen is collected into a sterile container, typically through masturbation. You may do this at home, as long as you can get the sample to our facility in no more than 1 hour, however, we recommend collection at our facility in a private rooms. You’ll have blood drawn for the infectious disease screening in this initial appointment.
Your sample is mixed with a special solution that will help protect it during freezing and thawing, and then separated into multiple vials. Your samples are then carefully frozen in liquid nitrogen vapor and stored in secure tanks. Semen samples can be stored for short and long periods of time.
Explore the Future Fertility Benefits of Freezing Sperm
Sperm freezing enables individuals and couples to preserve fertility opportunities. If you’re considering freezing your sperm, we encourage you to complete these forms and schedule a consultation with Fertility Center of California today.
