A 19-year-old in the United Kingdom has become the first teenager in the country to receive a testicular tissue transplant, a pioneering procedure doctors hope could restore his ability to produce sperm after chemotherapy left him infertile.
The teenager had testicular tissue removed and frozen three years earlier before undergoing treatment for a serious blood disorder. Chemotherapy can permanently damage the cells responsible for sperm production, and tests later showed that he had no sperm in his semen.
Doctors at NHS Lothian in Edinburgh have now transplanted the preserved tissue back into his body. The tissue contains spermatogonial stem cells, which can develop into sperm-producing cells after puberty. The medical team expects to know within months whether the transplant has successfully restored sperm production.
The operation is the first reported procedure of its kind in the UK and only the second reported worldwide. It could eventually offer a fertility-preservation option for boys who need chemotherapy before puberty, when freezing semen is not yet possible.
“I’ve always wanted to have children of my own but at some point, I found myself starting to slowly accept that that might never be possible for me. Having this procedure has given me genuine hope for the future,” the patient said.
“We don’t know yet whether it will work, but knowing that there is now even a possibility means more to me than I can really put into words,” he added.
The transplant followed about a decade of research at the University of Edinburgh, with funding support from Children with Cancer UK. Researchers began freezing and storing testicular tissue from boys before chemotherapy in hopes that the tissue could later be returned once they reached adulthood.
Professor Rod Mitchell of the University of Edinburgh said the procedure represented “a big step towards helping boys facing treatments that damage their fertility to have children of their own.”
