Urgent Medical Fertility Preservation

If you have received a referral to Melbourne IVF for medical fertility preservation (such as oncology cancer), or you wish to refer a patient for medical fertility preservation, please contact 1800 111 483 and mention this at the time of your appointment to ensure you are seen within 24-48hrs by one of our Fertility Preservation Specialists, and a counsellor if required.   

Please note however, if the request to see a specialist is urgent and your specialist of choice is not available, you will be seen by one of our fertility preservation experts.

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Tissue and gamete cryopreservation for cancer patients - NOTTCS

The National Ovarian and Testicular tissue Transport and Cryopreservation Service (NOTTCS) for medical fertility preservation

Our team has a long history of dedicated provision of fertility preservation expertise including tissue and gamete cryopreservation, counselling and support to patients affected by cancer and other fertility threatening, medical conditions.

What is tissue and gamete cryopreservation?

This refers to the process of freezing ovarian or testicular tissue, or human gametes, such as eggs or sperm, with the hopes of using it for future use in assisted reproductive treatments.

Fertility preservation is an essential part of cancer management. Ovarian tissue cryopreservation and grafting is now acknowledged as an important and successful fertility preservation method.

Who would need tissue cryopreservation?

Tissue cryopreservation is the only option for pre-pubertal patients and for post-pubertal at-risk patients where gamete cryopreservation (mature eggs and sperm), is not possible. While Testicular tissue cryopreservation still remains experimental in boys, there have been live births reported from primates using this technology, suggesting testicular tissue from pre-pubertal boys is also likely to be a useful option.

Why haven’t we heard of this before?

Highly specialised handling, processing and cryopreservation techniques are required to maximise opportunities for the tissue to restore fertility in the future. Currently many young people with cancer are not offered these fertility-saving options due to lack of local resources and expertise.

We’ve implemented a national tissue retrieval and transport program for children, adolescents and adults, enabling healthcare professionals from across the country to offer ovarian and testicular tissue cryopreservation to patients who are at risk of losing fertility because of their cancer or other serious disease or its treatment, and who would otherwise not have access because of where they live.

We are thrilled to have an opportunity to expand our services.

Our centres are some of the few in Australia able to provide this service, and have a proven track record with tissue cryopreservation, survival and grafting. Melbourne IVF's fertility preservation unit has reported livebirths after grafting of ovarian tissue, suggesting you can feel confident going through this process in our hands.

The service is partially funded by Sony Foundation Australia. Sony Foundation Australia is the charitable arm of the Sony Group of Companies in Australia.

Helpful resources:

Learn more about the NOTTCS program.

Are you considering fertility preservation after a cancer diagnosis? Or do you want to find out more about the field? Explore these created by our very own fertility specialists, Dr Violet Kieu, Dr Genia Rozen and Dr Daniel Lantsberg. The videos about Fertility After Cancer are also translated into Arabic, Greek, Italian, Mandarin, and Vietnamese, for general information on the topic.

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