title: Semen characteristics of transwomen referred for sperm banking before sex transition: a case series.
abstract: Transwomen (TW) can now turn to cryopreserve spermatozoa before gender reassignment (GR). The objective is to assess semen quality of TW and evaluate adequacy for assisted reproduction technology (ART). Pre-freezing (PF) and post-thaw (PT) semen parameters of 2 and PF data of 27 TW who were referred for sperm banking in Cleveland Clinic/USA and Ghent Center/Belgium, before GR, were retrospectively analysed. The study period was between February, 2003 and October, 2011. We also evaluated adequacy of 24-h PT data for ART. PF data of 29 TW, mean age of 28.9 years, showed high incidence of oligozoospermia (27.58%), asthenozoospermia (31%) and teratozoospermia (31%). Mean sperm concentration was 46.9 × 10(6) /ml, mean per cent motility was 42.9 and mean per cent sperm morphology (Kruger's) was 7.98. The 24-h PT data, for 2 TW, showed mean motility 22.4%, mean total motile sperm count 13.7 × 10(6) and total motile sperm concentration 8.7 × 106/ml. Single patient had used the frozen spermatozoon for intrauterine insemination (IUI) of a surrogate mother resulting in birth of healthy newborn. It is concluded that poor PF and 24-h PT semen quality is frequently seen among TW. As such, considerable proportion of TW should use more expensive method of ART, for example IVF/ICSI rather than inexpensive IUI.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, FL, USA.|Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.affiliation: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kingsberg
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wierckx
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: T'Sjoen
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Sutter
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Knudson
authors.affiliation: Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agarwal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015925:Cryopreservation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055101:Semen Analysis; D012662:Semen Preservation; D013076:Sperm Count; D013081:Sperm Motility; D014189:Transsexualism; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Assisted reproductive techniques; gender reassignment; semen analysis; sperm cryopreservation; transwomen