Ten-year outcomes of patients who developed persistent azoospermia following chemotherapy associated with different oncological diagnoses: A retrospective cohort study from a different perspective

Background/aim: This study evaluated the treatment procedures for chemotherapy (CT)-induced persistent azoospermia and their outcomes from a different perspective. Materials and methods: In 63 patients (mean age: 30.16 +/- 4.91 years) who had undergone CT 11 +/- 5 years earlier, the semen volume, gonadotropins level, FSH level, genetics, micro-testicular sperm extraction (m-TESE) result, sperm DNA fragmentation index (SDFI), semen reactive oxidative stress (ROS) rate, duration of embryonic development, and pregnancy and baby take-home rates were examined. The correlations between the ROS rates and the SDFIs, m-TESE results, sperm motility, pathology scores, time-lapses, and baby take-home rates were evaluated. Results: The semen volumes were 3.5 +/- 1.1/ml. The FSH level following CT was 17.87 +/- 5.80 mIU/ml. A sperm rate of 34.9% was found from the m-TESE result. The mean SDFI and ROS rate were 4 (<15-30>) and 1.29 +/- 0.51, respectively. The time-lapse was calculated as 5h. Pregnancy and live birth were achieved at 20.63% and 12.7%, respectively. In the patients with a low ROS (<= 1.42) and SDFI (<= 15), the m-TESE success rate was high, the FSH value was low, the pathological score and fertilization rate were elevated, the embryonic cleavage period was normal, and the pregnancy and baby take-home rates were high. Conclusion: The sperms may be detected using m-TESE in patients who develop persistent azoospermia associated with CT due to different oncological diagnoses. Our study revealed that a low FSH value and normal ejaculatory ROS rates are positive predictive factors of sperm detection before m-TESE. The motility of the sperms detected after m-TESE and normal SDFI rates were found to be positive predictive criteria of high fertilization, good embryonic cleavage, pregnancy, and live birth.