Where next?
Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
Sperm freezing is the most successful method of preserving a man’s fertility so he can try and have a child(ren) at a later date. It's also used to store sperm so it can be used in someone else's treatment. Find out more about what sperm freezing involves and how long you can store your sperm for.
Men are able to freeze their sperm for use in their own future treatment or to donate to someone else’s treatment. Donated sperm usually has to be quarantined for three or six months and screened for infections before it can be used by a recipient. The length of quarantine is dependent upon the type of screening tests that your clinic carries out.
You may want to consider freezing your sperm if:
Firstly, you’ll need to be tested for any infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis. This has no bearing on whether you can freeze your sperm or not but is to ensure that affected sperm samples are stored separately to prevent contamination of other samples.
You’ll then need to give your written, informed consent to your sperm being stored and specify how long you want it to be stored for.
Find out more about giving consent
At the clinic, you’ll be asked to produce a fresh sample of sperm (if you’re able), which will be mixed with a special fluid (a cryoprotectant) to protect the sperm from damage during freezing. Before freezing, the sperm sample is usually divided between a number of containers called straws. This means that not all the sperm needs to be thawed at once and can be used in multiple treatments. The samples are then cooled slowly and plunged into liquid nitrogen.
It’s very safe – we’re not aware of any risks to patients or children from using frozen sperm. Not all sperm will survive the freezing and thawing process though.
Treatment with frozen sperm is just as successful as treatment using fresh sperm.
You’ll need to complete consent forms before you start treatment specifying how you want your sperm to be used. This includes information on:
You can vary or withdraw consent at any time, either before treatment or before the sperm are used in research or training. If this happens, your sperm will not be used.
If your sperm are not used immediately in treatment, you may wish to store your sperm so they can be used for treatment in the future. To be stored sperm are frozen. You will need to think about how far in the future you might want or be able to use stored sperm and the potential costs of storing. This is something you should discuss with your clinic.
On 1 July 2022, the rules on how long you can store eggs, sperm or embryos changed. Before 1 July 2022, most people could usually only store their embryos for up to 10 years. Only if they had premature infertility or were going to be having medical treatment which could affect their fertility, could they store for up to 55 years.
The law now permits you to store eggs, sperm or embryos for use in treatment for any period up to a maximum of 55 years from the date that the embryos are first placed in storage. However, crucially for storage to lawfully continue you will need to renew your consent every 10 years. You must give your consent on the relevant consent form. You will be contacted by your clinic with relevant information and they should also provide you an offer of counselling before you give consent to storage of your sperm. Your clinic will contact you and provide the consent forms that you need to complete at the appropriate time. It is therefore essential that you keep your contact details up to date with your clinic as you will need to be contacted. If your clinic is unable to contact you your sperm will be at risk of being removed from storage and disposed of.
You don’t have to match the length of storage to any contract for paying for the storage (whether you, or the NHS, is paying). However, if you don’t pay for storage as agreed, the clinic may be within its right to dispose of your sperm. Your clinic should have explained this to your clearly when you stored your sperm.
Although research is still being conducted in this area, there is not enough evidence available to say for sure whether storing gametes and embryos for longer periods has any negative impact on their viability.
If you do not renew your consent to storage your sperm will be removed from storage and disposed of when the sperm can no longer can be lawfully stored.
If you do not wish to renew your consent to storage or to continue storing your sperm then you can withdraw your consent to storage. You will need to contact your clinic and complete the relevant withdrawal of consent form. At this point you may wish to consider donating the sperm that you do not wish to use for your own treatment for training purposes, or for use in someone else’s treatment. You would need to discuss this with your clinic and provide the additional consents where relevant. You can also consider donating your sperm for use in research, helping to increase knowledge about diseases and serious illnesses and potentially develop new treatments. Your clinic will need to give you more information about this and advise you whether this is an option for you.
If you stored your sperm before 1 July 2022 for up to 10 years but would like to store for longer (up to a maximum of 55 years from the date that the sperm are first placed in storage), you should contact your clinic to discuss whether this is possible and complete additional consent forms where necessary.
If you previously consented to store your sperm for longer than 10 years (up to a maximum of 55 years) because of premature infertility or because you were going to be having medical treatment which could affect your fertility you should contact your clinic as soon as possible as consent will now have to be renewed at each 10 years. You will need to complete additional consent forms in order for your clinic to legally continue to store your sperm (even if the clinic are still storing your sperm within the consent period you originally specified). Your clinic will know the date when you must complete and return the relevant consent form for storage to continue. If you do not renew your consent the sperm will be removed from storage and disposed of.
Make sure you tell your clinic if any of your contact details change. Because your clinic needs to contact you about your consent to storage, you should always inform your clinic if your contact details change or if your circumstances change (eg, in the event of separation from your named partner). If your clinic is unable to contact you to obtain your consent, then your sperm will be removed from storage and disposed of when they can no longer be lawfully stored.
You’ll need to have fertility treatment which may include in vitro fertilisation (IVF), intrauterine insemination (IUI) or, if the sperm you are using is not of optimum quality, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Once your sperm have been thawed, they’ll be used in exactly the same way as fresh sperm.
If none of your frozen sperm leads to a successful pregnancy, you might want to consider using donated sperm in treatment. Find out more about using donor sperm.
You might also want to explore other options for having a family, such as adoption. Find out more about coping if treatment doesn’t work.
If you have frozen sperm that you don’t want to use, you have a number of different options.
Donate them to someone else: You may be eligible to donate your sperm to someone else who very much wants a family.
Find out more about donating your sperm
Donate them to training: You may have stored sperm that you do not wish to use (for example, because the sperm are not needed, or are not suitable, for treatment). You can consent to your sperm being used and stored for potential use by designated healthcare professionals to practice the techniques involved in fertility treatment on the relevant HFEA consent form. If you give your consent to storing your sperm for training purposes, your clinic may store your sperm for these purposes for up to 55 years from the date that your sperm are first placed in storage.
Donate them to research: Research on eggs, sperm and embryos is invaluable in helping scientists to understand causes of infertility and develop new treatments.
Find out more about donating to research
Dispose them: Some people prefer to dispose of their sperm. Sperm that are no longer needed are simply removed from the freezer and allowed to perish naturally in warmer temperatures.
You can search for licensed UK clinics on our website here. You'll need to enter your postcode and then update your search criteria to look for clinics offering fertility preservation.
Testicular cancer and fertility (Cancer Research UK)
Bowel cancer and fertility (Bowel Cancer UK)
Men and cancer (Cancer Research UK)
Review date: 13 June 2026