title: Pregnancy and childhood health and developmental outcomes with the use of posthumous human sperm.
abstract: Although there is now considerable experience in obtaining sperm from a cadaver, there is little or no published data regarding pregnancy, birth and long-term childhood health and development outcomes when posthumous sperm is used in in vitro fertilisation (IVF). We report the results from treatment of four women undergoing IVF treatment using posthumously acquired human sperm from their deceased partners. In all cases, testicular tissue was obtained in a mortuary setting, and the duration from death to posthumous sperm retrieval ranged from 12 to 48 h. The age of women treated ranged from 31 to 41 years. Fertilization rates ranged from 40 to 100%. Singleton pregnancies were obtained for each of the four women. One pregnancy was complicated by preterm birth at 31 weeks; the other three delivered at term. One baby was growth restricted but morphologically normal; the other children had term birthweights in the normal range. All four children were have shown normal health and developmental outcomes, with the follow-up ranging from 1 to 7 years.
authors.affiliation: Australian National University Medical School, PO Box 5235, Garran, ACT 2605, Australia stephen.robson@anu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Robson
authors.affiliation: City Fertility Centre, Watkins Medical Centre, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: Primary IVF, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
authors.forename: Janelle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Repromed, 180 Fullarton Road, Dulwich, SA 5152, Australia.
authors.forename: Kelton
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tremellen
authors.affiliation: Genea, King Street, Deakin, ACT 2600, Australia.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carlin
authors.affiliation: Genea, King Street, Deakin, ACT 2600, Australia.
authors.forename: Genevieve
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maybury
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D002102:Cadaver; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015925:Cryopreservation; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D047928:Premature Birth; D020554:Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic; D053625:Sperm Retrieval; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: childhood; development IVF; health; post-mortem; posthumous; sperm