New hope for azoospermia patients with microscopic sperm extraction

The world’s first IVF was born in 1978, and Robert Edwards, the “father of IVF,” was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 for his work. After years of development, IVF technology has helped many infertile couples to realize their dream of having a child. And, there is no way to even talk to others about their pain. This is the embarrassing situation that patients with non-obstructive azoospermia are currently facing. Azoospermia is divided into obstructive azoospermia and non-obstructive azoospermia. The difference between these two, in layman’s terms, is that the former has normal testicular spermatogenesis and can produce offspring through IVF techniques. In contrast, in non-obstructive azoospermia, the testicular spermatogenesis is severely impaired. At present, this group of patients can only choose to have offspring with the help of sperm from human sperm banks. In other words, it is necessary to use someone else’s sperm to produce offspring, and the offspring born will not have any blood relationship with the patient himself. Due to the current scarcity of sperm banks in China and the large number of azoospermia patients, they often have to wait 1 or 2 years for sperm from a sperm bank to give birth. For a man, this long process is a kind of mood, pain, low self-esteem, disappointment, joy, I am afraid that only the patient himself can appreciate the bitterness and sweetness of it. However, in the past 2 years, a new technology of fertility assistance, microscopic sperm retrieval, has been introduced to China from Europe and the United States, giving new hope to this group of patients. At present, a few hospitals in China have started to carry out this technique, and a small number of patients have already given birth to offspring related to themselves through this technique. For patients with non-obstructive azoospermia, although testicular function is severely impaired and sperm may not be retrieved by testicular puncture biopsy, there may still be partial, focal normal spermatogenic tissues in the testes, so that sperm can be searched for in the testes under a high-definition surgical microscope through microscopic sperm retrieval technology, greatly increasing the possibility of finding sperm and the amount of sperm collected, allowing these patients to still find sperm through Microscopic sperm retrieval technology can still find sperm and do IVF to fulfill the dream of being a father. At present, in order to promote the development of assisted reproductive technology in Shaanxi Province and solve the difficult problem of infertility in the northwest, Shaanxi Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital has spent more than 1 million yuan to purchase the operating microscope, the key equipment for microscopic sperm retrieval, which brings new hope to azoospermia patients in the northwest and takes assisted reproductive technology in Shaanxi Province to a new level.