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Should I donate to a sperm bank now?

Many treatments for osteosarcoma may cause infertility in the patients they strive to cure. Patients considering and/or planning to undergo these treatments should consult their doctors to determine and understand their reproductive risks.

Even though you may not be considering having a child at this time, it is a good idea to be prepared for the future. For males, the easiest way to prepare is to visit a sperm bank, where your sperm can be frozen and possibly used in the future for reproduction. It is not necessary that you use the frozen sperm in the future, but it is nice to have that option available.

Most infertility specialists would recommend that cancer survivors who recover fertility should try to conceive naturally with the sperm or eggs they are producing, given that we do not have any proof of an increased risk of birth defects in children born after cancer treatment. Fresh is generally preferred over frozen, but there are other factors to consider in individual situations.

At this time, there is not anything available for females, who are undergoing cancer treatments, to do to increase their chance for fertility in the future. However, it could still be helpful to talk to a fertility specialist about the probabilities of conceiving a child after treatment. You can talk to your primary care physician to get more information as well.

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