TECHNIQUES OF FREEZING maintain fertility of cancer patients
Cancer patients who need to refer to sections of radiotherapy and chemotherapy during treatment, may lose their reproductive capacity. According to the director of the Center for Assisted Reproduction Origen, Selmo Geber, over 90% of male patients have a framework of azoospermia (no sperm in ejaculate) a few weeks after beginning chemotherapy. Depending on the type of tumor and chemotherapy, the chances of return to produce sperm in the ejaculate varies from 20 to 67%.
In women, the effects of cancer treatments can result in both loss of normal uterine function and in total or partial destruction of the reserve of eggs in the ovary, in addition to the more radical, the removal of the ovaries.
However, it is possible to preserve the reproductive capacity of men and women before the initiation of chemotherapy, using techniques of freezing. "Through cryopreservation, which is the conservation of biological materials at temperatures low enough, we freeze ovaries, ova, embryos and sperm. With this process, the chance of the couple have children is greater, "says Geber Selmo.
The doctor explains that, in women, it is possible to maintain the reproductive capacity through the freezing of the embryo or the egg. At the clinic, some pregnancies have been achieved thanks to the put. The freezing of ovarian tissue is also a possibility that is still in experimental stage.
Even in men, the doctor explains that it is possible to freeze the sperm. However, if it has little sperm, it is possible to freeze the testicular fragments.
The doctor warns that having children after cancer is possible, but depends on the risk that the cancer will have on the pregnancy. "In some cases it is recommended not pregnant," he says. There are cases, even where the woman discovers a cancer grows or during pregnancy. In this case, as the immune system has a low, it is difficult to conduct a pregnancy, because the recovery depends on each person. "If used during pregnancy for any aggressive medications, there are chances of children born with some complication. Already the mother going through a surgical procedure is most often occur this type of problem, "explains. Selmo Geber further explains that when the mother refuses to stop the pregnancy, treatment is delayed. |