Department of Philosophy and Moral Science, Bioethics Institute Ghent (BIG), Ghent University, Ghent B-9000, Belgium.
Faculty of Nursing, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada.
Hum Reprod. 2021 Mar 18;36(4):833-839. doi: 10.1093/humrep/deaa373.
Increased paternal age has been associated with lower fertility and higher genetic risk for the offspring. One way to prevent these consequences is to freeze sperm at a young age. Social sperm freezing could be developed in a way similar to social oocyte freezing. The main difference between freezing oocytes and sperm is that social sperm freezing is much less focussed on fertility preservation and much more on avoiding increased genetic risk. Contrary to what some people seem to believe, sperm freezing is more complicated than it looks at first sight. This article considers three practical aspects: freezing, storage and testing. It is concluded that the remedy (cryopreservation) may itself cause damage to the quality of the spermatozoon and to its genetic integrity, thus undoing the possible benefits in terms of fertility and health of offspring.
父亲年龄的增加与较低的生育能力和后代更高的遗传风险有关。防止这些后果的一种方法是在年轻时冷冻精子。社会精子冷冻可以以类似于社会卵母细胞冷冻的方式发展。冷冻卵子和精子的主要区别在于，社会精子冷冻的重点不是生育力保存，而是避免遗传风险增加。与一些人似乎认为的相反，精子冷冻比乍一看要复杂得多。本文考虑了三个实际方面：冷冻、储存和测试。结论是，补救措施（冷冻保存）本身可能会对精子的质量及其遗传完整性造成损害，从而抵消了在生育能力和后代健康方面的可能益处。
