Friday, January 13, 2012

Local medical center encourages military and cancer patients to store sperm and eggs

by Lucy Bustamante

WVEC.com

Posted on January 9, 2012 at 5:28 PM

Updated today at 5:42 PM

NORFOLK ? Fertility treatments aren't just for the infertile anymore.? In fact, at the Jones Institute in Norfolk, there are special discounted programs for the military and for cancer patients.

Dr. Laurel Stadtmauer at the Jones Institute pulls out a canister to show where sperm are kept at the cryo lab. This is hope in a can for military members and cancer patients.

She says the Jones Institute offers case by case discounts to military families so they can save sperm or eggs before deployment; this way their fertility isn't at risk.?

She says "We will freeze for the military and a lot of times they will transport sperm to Portsmouth Naval."

They encourage women over 35 to save eggs or embryos.

Dr. Stadtmauer says, "So when they come back from deployment, their embryos are frozen at the age of 38, and if they come back at 40 then they're going to have much better chances of pregnancy and just have to transfer the embryos when they're ready to have a child.?

But the patients that get the most special treatment are the cancer patients- before they undergo chemo.

"For the men, the exposures- radiation, chemicals, the Agent Orange- a lot of men have low sperm counts or low what we call morphology? which is the shape of the sperm where they are not able to fertilize the egg due to the exposures," said Stadtmauer.

She added, "Chemo is very toxic to eggs and a lot of women will go through treatment and will become infertile."

Jones Institute will store their eggs and sperm for free, and in-vitro cycles post chemo are 50% off.

It even saves the ovarian tissue of pre-pubescent girls at Children?s Hospital of the King?s Daughter who have been diagnosed with cancer.? And when they survive chemo, they transplant their tissue back into the ovaries and save their chances of having a family.

"They come here and they're very happy that they can hear something positive and that there are options,? and they can think about the future and getting cured and having a family," exclaimed Stadtmauer.

Cancer patients get all of their fertility medications for free at the Jones Institute, thanks to a partner organization called Fertile Hope.

If you're interested in getting help with saving sperm or eggs, call 757-446-7100.

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Source: http://www.wvec.com/news/health/Local-medical-center-urges-military-and-cancer-patients-to-store-sperm-and-eggs-136969778.html

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