Semen production in adolescent cancer patients.
BACKGROUND
The influence of an accompanying person (parent, guardian or nurse) on the ability of an adolescent (post-pubescent, <20 years of age) to produce a semen sample for cryopreservation, is undetermined, as is the potential for use of urine samples to retrieve sperm in those adolescents that are unable to produce a semen sample.


METHODS
The records from 1991-2000 inclusive were reviewed to derive those adolescent patients who were unable to produce semen for cryopreservation prior to undergoing treatment for a malignant condition.


RESULTS
During the study period 238 adolescents attended our unit of whom 205 (86.1%) banked semen ('producers'). The remaining 33 adolescents (13.9%) were initially unable to produce a sample ('non-producers'), four of these provided a urine specimen for analysis (12.1%) and of these one had sufficient sperm for cryopreservation. Of the 'accompanied' patients 29.7% (19/64) were non-producers while in the 'unaccompanied' patients only 8.0% (14/174) were non-producers (chi(2) = 16.58, P < 0.001). The relative risk (RR) of not producing a semen sample for the accompanied group of patients was greater than that for the unaccompanied group (RR = 3.689, 95% confidence interval: 2.0-6.9). One patient returning alone successfully provided a semen sample for storage.


CONCLUSIONS
Units should consider the effect of the presence of an accompanying person when an adolescent is unable to produce a semen sample and should consider requesting urine to retrieve sperm.
D000293:Adolescent; D015925:Cryopreservation; D005298:Fertility; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000209:etiology; D007938:Leukemia / Q000628:therapy; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000628:therapy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012512:Sarcoma, Ewing / Q000628:therapy; D012662:Semen Preservation; D013048:Specimen Handling; D013076:Sperm Count; D013081:Sperm Motility; D014556:Urine / Q000166:cytology