Doctors plan first testicle transplant

Men made infertile by chemotherapy currently rely on IVF

In the wake of the first successful ovary transplant for a woman, US doctors are reportedly preparing to try a fertility-saving procedure on male patients facing cancer treatment.

But they warn that the testicle transplantation procedure is fraught with technical and ethical difficulties.

Dr Peter Schlegel at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Centre, who is behind the plan, told the Independent that he expects to receive the go-ahead from hospital authorities before the end of the year.

At that point, a boy who is about to undergo chemotherapy or radiotherapy likely to destroy his chances of naturally fathering a child will have a testicle removed and frozen.

It will be replaced once treatment has ended and the boy has reached puberty.

And, unlike scientists behind the world's first ovary transplant, Dr Schlegel was more optimistic about the prospects of transplants involving not only the patient's own frozen tissue, but tissue donated by other men.

'Routine in a decade'

Dr Schlegel told the newspaper: "I am sure testicular transplants between men will be done in the next 10 years and there are a number of groups other than ours that are working on it."

Tissue can be safely frozen for years

The technical diffculties involved are significant - surgeons will have to reattach dozens of small blood vessels and nerves for the transplant to work.

Testicular transplantation has been performed successfully on animals.

Currently, a patient facing cancer treatment can, if beyond puberty, opt to freeze mature sperm.

This is then used to fertilise an egg using in-vitro fertilisation techniques.

The progress towards testicular transplantation invites comparison with the ovary transplant techniques pioneered by Professor Roger Gosden at Leeds University.

Ovulation restored

A US surgeon following his method has managed to restore ovulation to a 30-year-old woman who had had both her ovaries removed.

It is still uncertain whether the eggs she releases can be fertilised and lead to a successful pregnancy.

But the technique has been suggested as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy, or may even, eventually, lead to a way of extending female fertility into the 60s.

However, Professor Gosden said the method was likely only to work using the tissue of younger women, as there would be a higher concentration of eggs in their ovarian tissue.