Fathering a child after RRP

It would have been a LOT easier had you visited a sperm bank BEFORE the surgery...

Now, while technically possible, it's VERY difficult and you can bet expensive. It's seems that sperm like to incubate for a while in the seminal vesicles and build up their strength for their journey..The ones they manage to extract from your testicles tend not to be very energetic or enthusiastic.. So usually, I think, they attempt an "in vitro" procedure then implant the embryos ..There are specialists in these procedures, I could be WRONG, so talk to one and get the details correctly...Good Luck...

Hi JerseyG

There was a thread about this topic a few weeks back. Have a look at:

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=1922788

There may be many techniques, but the one I have heard about will involve a complex version of In Vitro fertilization and I have no idea of the cost or the success rate.

Harvesting the sperm involves an operation. Approximately as follows: The scrotum has to be cut open and then the testicle opened as well, from inside the testicle they remove a bit of the tubes that contains the sperm. Then everything gets sewn up again. Operation under general anaesthetic I assume. Post-op pain would be medicated and I have no idea how long the recovery would take, but longer than a vasectomy I imagine.

The tube contains sperm at all stages of development (and no semen to look after them of course) so the mature sperm have to be separated out and they are then used to try and fertilise an egg that has been harvested. A fertilised egg then gets put back in the uterus. (bear in mind the success rate for IVF too)

You'll need to talk to a doctor with the right knowledge and skill.

Alf

Alf again:

If you look at the link I put in the other thread
malereproduction.com/male-infertility/sperm-aspiration/
you will see that it does mention the other technique PESA, where a needle is indeed stuck into a testicle in the hope that it will find some sperm but this is a technique which while cheaper it says does not really work, hence the advanced technique which is basically harvesting a bit of testicle rather than a bit of sperm.
(You have to bear in mind that sperm are incredibly tiny, most of your ejaculate is actually the semen not the sperm)

if you have a "Google" for the following:
mesa sperm fertilisation
you will find many hits that should help provide much more info
Alf

I've had a bit more of a rummage for info as this is not a topic to treat too casually:
Firstly, the simpler sperm extraction technique using a needle is now giving better results than I may have suggested in a post above.
Secondly, some studies seem to be reporting successful pregnancy in between 40% and 50% of cases.

It's also worth bearing in mind that in the case of a PCa patient both the man and woman involved are unlikely to have any of the other fertility problems associated with IVF. You are effectively the same as a man who has had a vasectomy or who has blocked ducts, thus your sperm count should not be low, and the eggs should also be there too.
However, this is such a complicated issue that you should really seek expert advice from a fertility specialist.
A study by Cornell is at this site
www.maleinfertility.org/new-retrieval2.html


Alf
PS: One of my uro's first post-diagnosis questions was "Did I have children?" a question we both felt it was important to deal with (I have two children).

Post Edited (English Alf) : 11/19/2010 12:50:31 AM (GMT-7)