Patients store sperm for future family hopes
The centre’s manager, Declan Keane, said the unit offered men and women who are undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy or radical surgery the best chance of having a family in the future.
“We look on it like an insurance policy. It’s there if it is needed. It also helps patients to adopt a positive attitude about their treatment and outcome,” said Mr Keane.
“Cancer patients have come back to introduce us to their babies and send us photographs all the time. One cancer patient has had four children, including triplets. It’s just fantastic to see these babies come through the door in their parents’ arms,” said Mr Keane.
Of the 14 cases where men’s sperm has been stored, 50% have resulted in a successful pregnancy. This is higher than the unit’s 38% success rate for assisted reproduction.
Yesterday, Health Minister Micheál Martin opened the unit’s 500,000 extension. He entered through a long hall decorated with photos of babies born through assisted reproduction.
The unit was set up by the Rotunda five years ago. At the time it was thought that it might receive approximately four patients a year.
This proved to be a gross underestimate. In its first year, 56 people used the service.
Last year, funding obtained from the Department of Health allowed facilities for reproductive cell freezing and storage to be extended.
Mr Keane said the very fact that the service is available in Dublin had contributed to its success.
Previously, very ill patients had to travel all the way to Belfast or even Britain, and many were just too ill to make the journey.
Currently, egg and semen samples are retained for up to 10 years. The age of acceptance for men is from 16 years upwards, while for women it starts at 18 years.
Mr Keane pointed out that the process for the storage of frozen eggs is more complicated. There were only 11 referrals since January when the service was offered to women cancer patients. Unfortunately, none were suitable.
Mr Keane explained that the problem was that cancer treatment would have to be delayed in order to retrieve the eggs, and that would jeopardise the patients’ prognosis.
Currently, there is only one woman cancer patient considering having her eggs preserved.
She is 18 years old and is awaiting a bone marrow transplant.
A similar facility in Belgium had only been able to freeze the eggs and ovarian tissue from 16 women cancer.
