The recently developed technique of freezing and storing human semen in liquid nitrogen is moving out of the laboratory and onto a clinical base, members of the American Society for the Study of Sterility were told at the organization's 20th annual meeting in Miami in May.
Well over two dozen children have been produced with nitrogen-frozen spermatozoa used clinically by several investigators, reported J. K. Sherman, PhD, University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Sherman, who developed the technique, said no genetic damage induced by freezing and thawing has been noted, and the current view is that damage does not occur.
"We now have available, therefore, a simple, efficient, and clinically proved method for frozen storage of human spermatozoa, suitable for immediate but planned application," he stated. Possible applications in the treatment of infertility suggested at a recent international congress on genetics, include: (1) the collection and storage of many ejaculates over