Guide for Medical Patients

Certain medical treatments, such as chemotherapy, can affect your fertility. If you have been told you need to undergo this type of treatment, there are options for you to preserve your fertility beforehand with us.

By freezing your sperm or eggs, you will be able to use them to try to have a family when you’re ready.

Please be assured that we pride ourselves on our openness and honesty. Our 30 years of experience in treating all causes of infertility is testament to our personal approach. When you come to Manchester Fertility, we will only ever recommend the best treatment for your needs and circumstances, with completely transparent costs.

We offer:

Sperm-freezing

Freezing your sperm is a very simple process. Before you freeze your sperm you will undergo screening to make sure you’re free of any infectious diseases. You then visit our clinic and provide a fresh sperm sample, which is then  preserved in liquid nitrogen.

When you decide you wish to use your sperm, it is thawed and analysed by our expert team of andrologists to make sure it is of good enough quality to be used.

The chances of pregnancy using frozen sperm depends on a number of factors. These include how successfully your sperm survives the freeze-thaw process. Your sperm can be used in IVF or ICSI treatment.

Egg-freezing

To freeze your eggs, your ovaries are first stimulated with fertility drugs to produce more eggs than you would naturally.  The development of the eggs is carefully monitored and once the eggs have reached the correct size, egg collection takes place under sedation.

Your eggs are then frozen using a new technique called vitrification or ‘flash-freezing’, and once frozen your eggs are stored in liquid nitrogen until you wish to try to conceive with them.

When you decide you wish to use your eggs, your eggs are thawed, analysed by our team of embryologists and fertilised via intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where a single, best quality and healthy sperm is injected directly into the egg.  The best quality embryo(s) will be selected for transfer.

The chances of pregnancy are influenced by a number of factors. These include your age, the number of eggs removed, how successfully they survive the freeze-thaw process, how many are fertilised and how many quality embryos are available for transfer.

Fertility MOT

If you’re not sure about your current fertility status, our Fertility MOT will give you the answer. It’s a series of simple tests, including ovarian reserve tests and semen analysis, which will highlight any issues with your sperm or eggs. You can have a Fertility MOT prior to undergoing your medical treatment.

Counselling and consent

If you wish to freeze your eggs or sperm, you will be offered the opportunity to discuss the implications of egg or sperm freezing with one of our experienced counsellors.

If you’re freezing sperm, you will need to give written consent for your sperm to be used. The consent form allows you to specify what happens to your sperm in the event that something happens to you and how long you want your sperm sample to be preserved for. You can withdraw your consent for the use of your sperm at any time.

Before you freeze your eggs, you will see one of our consultants at Manchester Fertility, who will go through a full explanation of the process involved, including the risks. And as with sperm freezing, you will also be offered an opportunity to discuss the implications of this process with our counselling team.

If you’ve previously had medical treatment

If you’ve had chemotherapy in the past, our expert urology team offers a procedure called Micro dissection testicular sperm extraction (mTESE) to help men who have been left infertile become fathers.

mTESE is a new technique where individual tubules are removed from the testicle and  examined to search for sperm cells. If sperm is found, it is analysed and used in conjunction with Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where a single sperm is injected into the egg to fertilise it.

Our consultant urologist Dr Steve Payne, who has long-standing expertise in assessing and treating male factor infertility, specialises in surgical sperm retrieval (SSR) procedures including mTESE.

For more information about how we can help you, please contact us on 0161 300 2730 or why not book in for an informal, free 'one-to-one' with our Patient Advisors? It will give you a chance to meet us informally and have a good look round our clinic. You can also ask any questions you may have.