Men with Testicular Cancer Often Become Fathers

Men with Testicular Cancer Often Become Fathers Men with Testicular Cancer Often Become FathersReuters HealthTuesday, November 1, 2005NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - After treatment for testicular cancer, about 71 percent of men achieve fatherhood, new research indicates. However, the type of treatment has a strong impact on the paternity rate. The findings, which appear in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, are based on a study of 554 long-term survivors of testicular cancer who attempted to become fathers following treatment.

Dr. Marianne Brydoy, from Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, and colleagues divided the subjects into groups based on the treatment they were given after surgery: surveillance, removal of lymph nodes, radiation, low-dose chemotherapy, and high-dose chemo. As noted, the overall 15-year post-treatment paternity rate was 71 percent. The highest paternity rate, 92 percent, was in the surveillance group, while the lowest rate, 48 percent, was in the high-dose chemotherapy group. The average time from diagnosis to the birth of the first child was 6.6 years, but once again the specific time depended largely on the treatment received.