Semen cryopreservation: an update.

Cryopreservation of semen has a place in reproductive medicine. It is done best using liquid nitrogen as the refrigerant and the pre-freeze semen should be of good quality. High quality spermatozoa survive the freezing-thawing process and ordinarily result in good babies. Abnormal sperm generally do not survive the freezing-thawing process, which, consequently, results in a more viable union and outcome from the germ cells. Cryopreservation of semen can be used to preserve semen before medical or surgical sterilization, to augment the sperm count in patients with certain types of oligospermia and to manage the childless couple by donor semen artificial insemination in those instances in which the husband is infertile. Cryopreserved semen produces babies and perhaps thousands of humans have been the result of conception that resulted from cryopreserved spermatozoa.