Fertility and sexual dysfunction in young male cancer survivors

Newly emerging serious post-treatment complications among young male cancer survivors involve fertility and sexual function, preventing them from pursuing a normal family life.

We studied and summarized published studies that assess the relationship between cancer treatments and reduced spermatogenesis or sexual dysfunction.

Infertility often occurs because of anticancer therapies that impair spermatogenesis. While some patients postremission functionally recover fertility, others experience a decreased sperm count and azoospermia. Fertility-preserving modalities are currently being promoted worldwide to preserve spermatogenesis following cancer therapy. Patients who can ejaculate and have sperm in their semen should cryopreserve semen. However, for patients who have never ejaculated before puberty or in whom spermatogenesis has not been established, testis biopsy is performed to collect and preserve sperm or germ cells. Fertility preservation is gaining popularity and requires continuous information dissemination to oncologists and cancer treatment professionals. Furthermore, male sexual dysfunction predominantly involves erectile dysfunction and ejaculation disorder.

Although preventive and therapeutic methods for these disorders have been established within urology, patients and medical professionals in other fields remain uninformed of these advances. Therefore, dissemination of information regarding fertility preservation techniques should be accelerated.