Endocrine Abstracts

Fertility preservation is an increasingly important aspect of clinical care for many patient groups. For children and young adolescents, this is most commonly offered to those who are due to receive gonadotoxic therapies such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. For pubertal patients at risk of infertility, it may be possible to obtain sperm for cryopreservation from a semen sample or via surgical sperm extraction prior to gonadotoxic therapy. For prepubertal patients, the options for fertility preservation centre around preserving testicular tissue containing spermatogonial stem cells. The use of cryopreserved sperm is well established as a proven method to generate offspring using IVF/ICSI; however, for cryopreserved prepubertal testicular tissues the options for restoring fertility potential remain experimental. This presentation will focus on identifying young males at risk of future infertility and the options for future fertility. We will discuss assessment of reproductive function and fertility and the approach to referral for fertility preservation. Finally, we will discuss the options for using cryopreserved testicular tissue or cells to restore fertility in adulthood.