OBJECTIVETo investigate the effectiveness of testicular sperm cryopreservation in male fertility preservation by evaluating the clinical outcome of ICSI cycles with frozen-thawed testicular sperm for azoospermia patients.

METHODSWe retrospectively analyzed 96 samples of cryopreserved testicular sperm obtained by testicular biopsy, vasovasostomy (V-V), vasoepididymostomy (V-E) , of which 55 were subjected to 60 ICSI cycles with frozen-thawed testicular sperm. We evaluated the rates of sperm recovery, fertilization, cleavage, transferable and good-quality embryos, clinical pregnancy, pregnancy outcome, and health of the newborns.

RESULTSAll the frozen testicular sperm samples were recovered successfully. The rates of fertilization, 2PN fertilization, cleavage, available embryos and good-quality embryos were 77.6, 69.4, 99.4, 84.5 and 40.8%, respectively. There were transferable embryos in all cycles. Fresh embryos were transferred in 52 of the 60 cycles, with the clinical pregnancy rate of 57.7% (30/52), including 19 singletons and 11 twins, and the rates of implantation and miscarriage were 38.7% (41/106) and 3.33% (1/30). Up to the present time, there have been 20 healthy newborns, including 12 boys and 8 girls, and another 13 ongoing pregnancies. No birth defects have been found so far.

CONCLUSIONDesirable clinical outcomes can be obtained from ICSI cycles with frozen-thawed testicular sperm, and testicular sperm cryopreservation is an effective method of fertility preservation for azoospermia males.