Edinburgh doctors perform the UK's first transplant of frozen testicular tissue after chemotherapy
Doctors in Edinburgh have transplanted testicular tissue frozen before a 19-year-old's chemotherapy back into his body, the UK's first such procedure and only the second reported worldwide.
Doctors in Edinburgh have transplanted testicular tissue, frozen before a young man's chemotherapy, back into his body in the hope that it will start producing sperm, the University of Edinburgh said. The trial procedure, carried out by NHS Lothian, is the first of its kind in the UK and only the second reported worldwide.
The tissue was frozen before a bone marrow transplant
The patient, a 19-year-old student who wishes to stay anonymous, had testicular tissue removed and frozen in 2023 before a bone marrow transplant for a serious blood disorder. That treatment involves high-dose chemotherapy, which can permanently destroy the cells that make sperm.
Three years later, tests found no sperm in his semen. In August 2026, doctors returned part of the frozen tissue to his body. He has recovered well, and after eight months some of the transplanted tissue will be removed and examined to see whether it has produced sperm.
“Having this procedure has given me genuine hope for the future. We don't know yet whether it will work, but knowing that there is now even a possibility means more to me than I can really put into words.” — The patient, who wishes to remain anonymous
Boys have no other way to preserve their fertility
Freezing semen is an established option for teenagers and adults, but boys who have not reached puberty do not yet produce sperm. The frozen tissue contains spermatogonial stem cells, which make sperm from puberty onwards, so returning it could one day let boys treated for cancer have children.
Edinburgh researchers have spent more than ten years building this programme, first funded by Children with Cancer UK in 2015. More than 1,200 patients in the UK and 3,100 worldwide now have testicular tissue in storage. Fertility research is advancing on other fronts too, such as work on why ageing ovaries release fewer mature eggs.
A Belgian patient showed the approach can work
The only earlier human case was in Belgium, where tissue frozen before puberty was transplanted back into a man treated for sickle cell disease as a child. A year later there were signs of sperm production and one mature sperm cell was found, BioNews reported. That result involves one patient and has not been peer reviewed, and lead researcher Professor Ellen Goossens said the team still has to see whether such sperm can fertilise an egg.
Study lead Professor Rod Mitchell called the Edinburgh procedure "a big step towards helping boys facing treatments that damage their fertility to have children of their own."
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