Twins born from cancer survivor's 13-year-old sperm
Categories: Pregnancy & birth, Health & safety, Medical conditions, Weird but true, Resources
A woman in Taiwan recently gave birth to twins. No big deal there, right? Well, it turns out the sperm used to make those beautiful babies was thirteen years old. It was also donated from a cancer survivor--the woman's husband. The sperm had been frozen for over a decade when it was determined that the father, a man named Chen, then twenty-three, had testicular cancer and would be rendered infertile from the chemotherapy.
Cut to thirteen years later when his wife was then impregnated with the formerly frozen sperm. Artificial fertilization is truly an amazing, miraculous thing, and, thirty-seven weeks later, the wife gave birth to her own two little miracles. Taiwan's Central News Agency says the length of time in between the freezing of the sperm and the birth of the children is the longest in Taiwan's history.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jett 11-11-2008 @ 8:08PM
I have a crazy question. Since the person who donated the sperm cell was a cancer survivor, what is the risk of the recipient of the sperm cell getting cancer?? Curious in AZ
Reply
drtjyen 11-11-2008 @ 8:32PM
As much risk as if the mother conceived the old fashioned way. The father's testicular cancer may or may not be genetic. If he has a family history, then he could have been genetically tested to see if he has mutations in known genes that can increase risk of cancer. The big caveat with the genetic screens, is that it cannot all of the tens of thousands of genes in a human cell. So, when the results come back "normal", if only means the of the ones they looked at (which are limited in number), they are OK.
RMS 11-11-2008 @ 11:07PM
WHO CARES !
Reply