HYDERABAD: The just married parents of the newborn had the shock of their life way back in 2012, when the father was diagnosed with cancer and their future seemed doomed. The couple, however on the advice of doctors at Oasis Fertility, a reproductive facility with 12 centres in the twin Telugu states in Hyderabad, took the prudent decision of preserving the semen prior to he underwent cancer treatment.
Recently after recovering from the ordeal, they took the call to bring back cheer in their otherwise mundane lives by having a biological child with the frozen sperms.
In 2012 the 23-year-old father, Karthik (name changed) was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer, the mediastinal tumor, which sprouts in the chest area separating the lungs, devastating the young couple.
Assessing the side effects cancer treatment could have, especially on his ability to procreate offspring, his oncologist advised Karthik to preserve his semen with a sperm bank.
Eight years ago, Karthik had preserved it at the Oasis Fertility Sperm bank, just prior to undergoing the extremely agonizing cancer treatment.
Though he completely recovered from the disease a year ago, he lost the ability to father a child due to the strong chemo and radiotherapy dosage he was administered.
That’s when the couple decided to opt for the infertility treatment and approached Oasis Fertility to retrieve the frozen semen and undergo infertility care.
The hospital used advanced technologies like MACS to perform ICSI, transferred the embryo sometime in December 2019, and paved the way for the couple to fulfill their long-cherished parenthood dream.
The mother delivered a healthy female baby last week and was discharged today.
Dr Durga G Rao, Medical Director and Co-Founder, Oasis Fertility said, “Karthik came back to us in the year 2018 when he was fully recovered from cancer and decided to embark on his fertility treatment, we took all the necessary protocols and used advanced technologies like MACS to perform ICSI and transferred the embryo sometime in December 2019 and we have seen the miracle last week.”
Cancer therapy is known to affect fertility significantly and has always been a cause of concern for those becoming victims of it at a young age.
Certain drugs like alkylating agents or cisplatin used in chemotherapy are known to impede fertility in patients.
Radiation used for cancer treatment is considered to be even more detrimental to reproductive organs, the intensity of damage only varies depending on the location and size of the radiation field and the dose administered.
Therefore, it has become imperative for young victims of cancer and other serious ailments to preserve their semen or eggs with an Infertility Bank before opting for treatment.
In fact it makes great sense to preserve the semen or eggs when one is healthy, especially considering the huge uncertainties of life on account of stress, lifestyle diseases, and unimagined pandemics like Covid19, afflicting the youth in their prime.
The advanced preservation techniques for semen and eggs are helping young couples world-over to have their biological children despite their health not being sound.
Dr Krishna Chaitanya, Scientific Head and Clinical Embryologist, Oasis Fertility, added, “We have been doing cryo-preservation more frequently off late, be it fertility preservation for cancer patients or social freezing, we have been seeing that there is a greater awareness on the fertility preservation in the society. We use holistic and a team approach of treating a cancer survivor with the help of the fertility specialist, embryologist and psychologist.”
WHAT’S THE NEED TO FREEZE EGGS/SEMEN?
In fact, it makes great sense to preserve the semen or eggs when one is healthy, especially considering the huge uncertainties of life on account of stress, lifestyle diseases and unimagined pandemics like Covid19, afflicting the youth in their prime.