Cancer-stricken 12-year-old still hopes to be a father

KOCHI: When 24-year-old Shine (name changed) was tested positive for lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the immune system, he and his girlfriend informed the oncologist that they would like to go for sperm banking. They married while he was undergoing chemotherapy. Soon after treatment, they decided to start a family. His sperm was harvested and after In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), they are in the family way.
Shine is among the increasing number of men, mostly young and unmarried, detected with cancer, who run the risk of losing their fertility during treatment and have opted for sperm banking before chemotherapy or radiation treatment and bone marrow transplant.
“We have nearly 60 cancer patients who have come and preserved their sperm as their oncologist has said that they are at increased risk of infertility due to chemotherapy or radiation. The youngest person to have gone for semen cryopreservation with us is a 12-yearold boy and the oldest is a 38year-old,“ said Dr Parasuram Gopinath, scientific director, CIMAR Fertility Centre, Kochi.
“Of the 30 young cancer patients who have preserved their sperm with us, majority are unmarried. There are few married men too who decide to go for sperm banking,“ said Reshmi Aysha, chief operating officer, KIMS Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
Many of the well-known cancer care centres said that on an average anywhere from 10 to 30 young patients and their families seek advice on sperm banking. Of these, nearly 8 to 10 preserve their sperm every year either in the hospital sperm bank or at a fertility centre in Kerala or outside. It is mostly young patients with testis cancer or lymphoma who are advised to opt for sperm banking.
“Whenever a young patient comes to us with early stage of testis cancer or lymphoma, then along with the treatment plan, we also talk to them about the possibility of preserving sperm. Many of them agree to it. But cost is an issue,“ said Dr V P Gangadharan, medical oncologist, VPS Lakeshore hospital. A person has to shell out initially anything between `50,000 and `1 lakh for sperm banking and then there is a yearly fees of `10,000 to `25,000 for preserving it.
However, unlike sperm banking, cryopreservation of embryos and oocytes (eggs) has not caught on. “The risk for permanent infertility is greater in male than for female patients, as the ovary appears to be relatively radio-and-chemoresistant. Also there are social factors too when it comes to unmarried women,“ Dr K Pavithran, medical oncologist, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS).
Oncologists working in the government sector said that for most cancer patients, the future quality of life and fertility issues are still secondary and what is crucial is the cost of sperm banking and cancer treatment cost. “It is an ideal situation to be, wherein the sperm is first preserved and then chemotherapy treatment is given. In slow growing lymphoma cases we do suggest sperm preservation but most of them are willing to take the risk, as they don't have enough money to go for sperm banking,“ said Dr Chandran K Nair, medical oncologist, Malabar Cancer Centre, in Kannur.