Let us find out how to preserve sperm at home as it is a question millennials are asking to become more aware of how sperm preservation works.
While most people are aware of all the sperm hospitals that can store their sperm with all precautions, now people also want to learn whether there is any possibility of preserving sperm at home?
And if there is, how to do that?
Before we know how to preserve sperm at home, let us first look at some questions people have. These will answer what sperm conservation means and why a person would need to freeze sperm.
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Sperm Cryopreservation – What is it?
At least once, the question can you freeze sperm has made a walk through our heads. Did it not?
The process of sperm cryopreservation, also referred to as sperm freezing, collects healthy human ejaculate or sperm, screening it, and storing it.
The process facilitates future usage for studies, impregnation, and more. In 1953, the first pregnancy from the use of frozen sperm happened. The sperm of humans are analyzed and tested before storing it at really cold temperatures at a sperm bank.
The same person can use these sperm or donate to another who needs them. For donating sperm to another person, his sperm is first collected and quarantined for at least six months. After that, it is screened and tested for STDs and other infections. Only once passed is it donated.
The next obvious question to strike our heads would be:
How long does frozen sperm last?
Frozen sperms can be stored for a long period. Sperms that are almost 20 years frozen can also be received and used.
The maximum time frozen sperms last for usage is 40 years.
But a question that now rings a bell in all of our heads is, why would a person want to freeze their sperm? Let us thus have a look at some reasons for the same.
Sperm Freezing – Why is it important?
There could be multiple reasons why anyone would want to preserve their sperm. To mention some of the most important reasons are:
Age
We all know that with age, the quality of sperm goes down. Some men want to preserve their when they are young or are at the later years of their young age to use it in the future.
High-risk environment exposure
Some men are at higher risk of damaging their testicles owing to their profession. Some examples of such occupations are firefighters, x-ray technicians, athletes, people in the military service, etc., amongst others. In such cases, men would want to keep their sperm stored.
Cancer therapies
One of the most important reasons for a man to store his sperm is diagnosed with cancer. The chemotherapy or radiation therapy used as a part of the cancer treatment has a high possibility of hindering the production of sperm. In such cases, the person diagnosed would want to preserve their sperm to use in the future.
Vasectomy
If a person chooses vasectomy, why would he need to store sperm? Some people choose to preserve their sperm right before getting their vasectomy surgery done just in case if they want to change their mind in the future and want a baby.
Yes, vasectomy is reversible through surgery; it is not always a success. Therefore, preserving the sperm from beforehand seems to be the best option.
Surgeries on Prostate or Testicles
There are high chances of the production of sperm getting affected when a person has to undergo any prostate or testicle surgeries.
In some cases, it can also result in Obstructive azoospermia. Again, this would require the person to undergo another surgery to extract sperm by repairing the damage caused. Hence, most people experiencing these surgeries prefer to keep their sperm stored, just in case.
Undergoing a sex-transplant surgery
Most men who undergo sex transplant surgery might want to preserve their sperm before surgery. This is more because once reconstructive or hormone therapy is performed, the person might face complete or sometimes partial loss of their fertility.
Approaching infertility
It is no more hidden that many are progressively becoming infertile with time. There could be many reasons for the same. Hence, many men whose sperm quality and count are not up to the mark and deteriorate with each passing day. For them, they might want to opt for getting their sperm stored and preserved.
Paternal Age
Like most women decided to freeze their eggs because they do not wish to embrace motherhood for some years, men too want to do the same. Some men shall not want to get a child in their younger ages and hence wish to freeze sperm. However, they would also like to store their sperm if they want to change their mind in the future.
Because you can
No one is aware of the unforeseen circumstances that might occur in the future. Hence, to be on the safe side, if a person can afford to preserve their sperm, why would they not want to do it? Although there is potentially no downside to it, it is obvious to not preserving your sperm.
What is the procedure for freezing sperm?
Before we get to how to preserve sperm at home, let us look at the procedure needed for freezing sperm. There are multiple steps included in the process of storing sperm.
Performing certain tests
The main aim is to ensure that the sperm that a person is freezing is perfectly healthy. For this reason, the person who wants to store their sperm would require to go through certain tests.
The screening involves doing a blood test to ensure that he is not infected with any sexually transmitted diseases or other infections. This is because all these affect the quality of the sperm. Moreover, it also ensures the woman who uses the sperm stays in good health.
Semen or sperm analysis
Once the blood tests reports are normal and free of any infections, the next step is to give your semen through masturbation.
The activity occurs in the clinic, or a person can also choose to masturbate at home and bring the sample to the clinic.
However, if you choose to masturbate at home and bring the semen to the clinic, remember to bring it within 24 hours of the ejaculation.
In some extremely rare cases, certain people (specifically people who have undergone cancer treatments or vasectomy) surgeries have to be done to extract the semen.
The next step is to undergo a sperm or semen analysis. This procedure helps collect certain data on the sperm.
These include the volume of the sperm, the sperm concentration, the sperm motility (how many sperm is moving), count (the total concentration of the sperm or how many sperm are there in total), and the sperm morphology (how many of the total sperm are shaped).
For this procedure, the semen is collected and is separated from the sperm fluid (also known as the seminal fluid or the testicle tissue) after being washed with the help of sterile media. After this process, the lab technicians view a small portion of the semen under a high-powered microscope.
Prepare the semen for freezing
When all the procedures are done, the next and final step is to store the sperm for freezing. For this, the andrologists (the people who specialize in male fertility or semen or sperm) take the semen and keep it in separate vials into storage freezers.
These storage freezers contain liquid nitrogen that constantly remains at a minus 196 centigrade temperature.
An obvious question that might arise is why is the semen of the same person is kept in several vials. Due to any unforeseen circumstance, a freezer fails, the semen of the person has other backup semen to the rescue.
How to preserve sperm at home?
Now that we are mostly aware of the basics of Sperm Cryopreservation or sperm freezing, let us now answer the main question we started with – how to preserve sperm at home?
To know the answer to how to preserve sperm at home, you need to know the answer to the following:
Can you freeze sperm at home?
To be honest, storing sperm at home is almost impossible. But it is a cheaper alternative. We would recommend you to go through a process facilitated by a clinic if you can afford the same.
For the sperm to be good, one must use freezers containing liquid nitrogens at a minus 196-degree centigrade temperature. These freezers contain the storage vapors of nitrogen tanks or the liquid nitrogen in cryogenic vials or ‘Dewars’.
However, the freezer of our houses can only have a maximum of minus 18 degrees centigrade. Keeping your semen frozen in a lab comes with a lot of security. The semen or the sperm would not change or degrade until properly thawed.
Hence, it is best to consult a good semen hospital and preserve your sperm at their vials instead of knowing how to preserve sperm at home.
However, even if you are sure that you want to know how to preserve sperm outside the body at home, there are now many sperm-saving kits readily available.
So, preserving your sperm at a clinic is the best way to ensure it remains healthy and usable even after years. But some people wish to know how to store sperm at home. Preserving semen or sperm at home ensures more discretion, privacy, and a significant amount of savings.
What is the cost to freeze sperm?
The cost of freezing sperms varies from one clinic to another and depends on several factors. These factors are:
- The testing cost of the clinic
- Testing and consultation fees
- The fertility clinic or the sperm bank’s collection
- The time for which you want to store the sperm
- How many samples of the sperm or the semen do you want to store
The average cost for storing sperm costs is around $275 per year. However, now that we are aware of how to preserve sperm at home, you can do it for cheaper.
Final thoughts
Sperm freezing is one of the safest ways to preserve your sperm and use it in the future under unforeseen circumstances.
There could be multiple reasons why someone would want to save their semen for future use or know how to preserve sperm at home.
In fact, as per what the doctors say, young men between the ages of 18 to around 25 years must think of preserving their sperm. This is because during this age, their sperm is the healthiest.
