Fertility Preservation Program

If you have questions about fertility, please call Claire Carlson at 215-590-0432.

As treatments for childhood cancers have improved, more and more survivors are entering their reproductive years, and are thinking about starting families of their own. Unfortunately, impaired fertility can be an unwanted consequence of the treatments used to cure pediatric cancer.

Other non-malignant diagnoses such as lupus, nephrotic syndrome, and vasculitis may also receive treatments that impact fertility. Children with disorders of sexual development and transgender youth also face unique fertility related challenges. We're here to help all of these patients.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia recognizes that fertility is an extremely important quality of life issue for our survivors. Thought must be given to whether a child's fertility is likely to be impacted by treatment. Ideally, this should occur before the start of therapy, when a window of opportunity may exist to preserve the patient's future reproductive potential.

The Fertility Preservation Program at Children’s Hospital is committed to offering fertility preservation options to patients and families across the institution that may be at risk for impaired fertility from the treatment of their primary medical condition. We are pleased to offer fertility preservation options to pre-pubertal and pubertal males and females.

Fertility preservation options for males

Sperm banking for pubertal boys

For males who have reached puberty, freezing sperm at diagnosis is the gold standard for fertility preservation and it has a well-demonstrated success rate. We recommend that sperm banking be offered to all eligible patients (defined as any male newly diagnosed with cancer who has reached puberty). Males as young as 12 years of age can sperm bank.

We work closely with the healthcare team to ensure that sperm banking is integrated into the patient and family education of newly diagnosed males. Our team facilitates this process by discussing sperm banking with families and by helping families to make appointments at a local reproductive endocrinology practice.

This Is Awkward: A resource for boys considering sperm banking

While preserving fertility is an important topic for families to discuss before cancer treatment begins, it can also lead to some uncomfortable conversations. In this video, former CHOP cancer patients discuss why they made the decision to bank their sperm, and describe what the experience was like for them.

Testicular cryopreservation for pre-pubertal males

Unlike pubertal boys, prepubertal males pose a particular challenge for fertility preservation. These boys cannot produce semen for cryopreservation by masturbation and they do not yet have mature sperm. The prepubertal testicle does, however, contain a small amount of the stem cells (parent cells) that, with the right signals, will eventually become mature sperm.

Promising research with animals in the lab has shown that testicular tissue can be removed and these stem cells, although few in numbers, can be extracted. These cells can then be reimplanted as is or matured and increased in number outside of the body before reimplantation. At this time, clinical applications of this science in humans are purely experimental.

However, research is currently underway at CHOP that allows prepubertal boys to have a testicular biopsy at diagnosis and freeze the tissue for their potential future use. A small piece of the tissue is also being studied in the laboratory to help scientists determine how the germ cells in the testicular tissue should be handled so that the maximum number of sperm-creating cells can be obtained. Parents have indicated that they welcome an opportunity to potentially preserve their son's fertility, even if the science does not currently exist to use the tissue for this purpose.

Fertility preservation options for females

Oocyte (egg) and embryo freezing

We have developed a clinical and research partnership with Penn Fertility Care and Main Line Fertility to offer both egg and embryo freezing to our patients. While not an option for all of our females, there are opportunities to pursue this option when the patient's circumstances will allow. Hormones are used to stimulate the formation of multiple egg follicles. These eggs are then removed and are frozen for the patient's potential future use to achieve a pregnancy.

This method is becoming more and more widely accepted, and there have been hundreds of live births from frozen eggs. In a circumstance where the patient may have a partner, there is also the option of using the eggs to create an embryo, which can then be frozen for future use.

Ovarian tissue cryopreservation 

Embryo freezing and oocyte freezing require ovarian stimulation at diagnosis and are not appropriate for prepubertal girls or when delaying cancer therapy is not an option. An alternative approach is the cryopreservation (freezing) of ovarian tissue. This tissue can then be thawed and reimplanted at a later date, thereby restoring ovarian function. While still experimental, ovarian tissue cryopreservation is beginning to show promise as a viable clinical option.

Successful live births have been achieved in humans using frozen ovarian tissue, although the numbers are very small. As part of a research protocol at CHOP, we can now offer ovarian tissue cryopreservation to girls as young as 1 year of age who are at risk for infertility from their cancer therapy. As part of this study, a small portion of the ovary is surgically removed. Eighty percent of the tissue is frozen and stored for the participant's own use in the future. Any mature eggs in this tissue can also be extracted and frozen. The remainder of the ovarian tissue is used by researchers to explore ways to extract immature eggs from the tissue and mature them in the laboratory.