Time to therapy and safety of testicular tissue cryopreservation in children undergoing gonadotoxic treatment or hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

Background: With the use of multimodal treatments and hematopoietic stem cell transplant, the majority of children diagnosed with malignancies and hematologic diseases are now surviving into adulthood. Due to the gonadotoxic effects and potential for future infertility associated with many of these treatments, fertility counseling with sperm cryopreservation prior to starting therapy is the standard of care for post-pubertal males. Unfortunately, the options are limited for pre-pubertal patients or those unable to provide a specimen.

Factors Associated With Fertility Preservation in a Pediatric, Adolescent and Young Adult Population.

Objective: To determine the patient characteristics associated with pursuing fertility preservation (FP) before gonadotoxic therapy in a pediatric, adolescent and young adult patient population.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of patient data at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Demographics, clinical diagnoses, and treatment characteristics were compared between participants that selected FP versus those that declined.