How Cancer Treatments Affect Fertility?

What is Male Infertility?

When a couple fails to conceive after repeated attempts, it is termed as infertility. Several studies have concluded that most infertility problems arise in men.

Male infertility is a condition where a man is not able to produce healthy sperms that are made in hundreds of microscopic tubes. There is no definite reason or cause for male infertility, but any major physical or mental stress can hamper the sperm count. So far, there are several different factors that affect the sperm count in men and cause male infertility. One of the most common causes is a low sperm count.  It has been indentified that almost 90 percent of male infertility cases happen due to poor or low sperm count. Such sperm abnormalities could be permanent or temporary. Temporary low sperm count happens due to some chemical exposure and lifestyle changes.

Cancer Connected to Infertility:

In the recent studies, it has been noted that people suffering from any type of cancer are prone to infertility problems. Cancer patients who have undergone treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy usually become infertile. Chemo sessions are known to hamper sperm quality and quantity, resulting in infertility. If a man is suffering from testicular cancer, then the chances of infertility are higher.

How Cancer Treatments Affect Fertility:

It is important to understand how cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy affect fertility (sperm count). Reproductive organs such as testicles and adrenal glands release hormones that stimulate and control fertility in men. Infertility happens when one of these organs get damaged by chemo sessions or cancer treatment.

Under radiation therapy, if the target area of the radiation is close to the testicle area then there are chances that after the therapy the treated person may experience a low sperm count. Such radiations slow down sperm production. Radiation can also cause permanent infertility.

In case a person is planning to go for a bone marrow transplant, prior to that he has to undergo full body radiation therapy which usually causes permanent infertility. Sometimes, radiation damages parts of the brain that help control hormone production. Surgeries to treat prostate or bladder cancer also affect men’s semen. They also cut the pathway for sperm cells to be included in the semen.

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