Cryopreservation of male gametes

Introduction, Cryopreservation of male gametes is an important aspect of human fertility preservation. With the advancement in assisted reproductive technology, indication for sperm cryopreservation is expanding. The exciting developments that have occurred over the years in this field have resulted in frozen sperm being as good as fresh sperm in fertilizing oocytes. Our objective is to provide the readers with the latest available information on cryopreservation of human spermatozoa including the sperm retrieved by epididymal aspiration and testicular biopsies. Conceptual, methodological, as well as regulatory information are provided so that the readers can obtain comprehensive knowledge about human sperm cryopreservation. Since American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) is the leading organization worldwide that is professionally involved with the assisted reproduction, ASRM's stance on ethical, professional, and patient safety issues related to cryopreservation of human sperm and their utilization are discussed. The techniques, methodology, and procedures described in this chapter are highly relevant to the current practice of assisted human reproduction and sperm banking. Historical background, It has been known for more than a decade that the fertilization capacity of mammalian spermatozoa can be preserved by cryopreservation technology (1, 2). It was an Italian physician who first proposed in 1866 the concept of human sperm bank to store semen specimens (1, 3, 4). The first successful human pregnancy by cryopreserved spermatozoa was reported by Bunge et al. in 1954 (1).