Fertility options for transgender and non-binary people
Male to female
Before starting your gender reassignment journey, you may want to consider freezing your sperm for fertility treatment in the future. Genital surgery and/or hormone therapy will affect your fertility function and will lead to a complete loss of fertility either immediately or over time. The longer you are under hormone therapy, the more your fertility is likely to be permanently affected.
If you would like to have biological children, or if you are not sure yet, preserving your fertility is the best way to keep your options open. If you have already been through puberty, you may be able to freeze your sperm and store them. This will ensure that sperm are available if you require a fertility treatment in the future.
If you already have started your hormone therapy or hormone blockers treatment, it may still be possible to temporarily reverse the effects that these drugs have on your body. Our fertility consultants will probably recommend you to briefly pause your treatment in order to start your fertility preservation journey.
Fertility treatments
If you have stored sperm, the sperm could be used in different treatments such as:
- Intrauterine insemination (IUI). This is when sperm is placed directly in someone’s womb
- In vitro fertilization (IVF). This is when sperm is mixed with eggs which have been previously collected from someone’s ovaries leading to their fertilization. This someone could be your partner or an egg donor
- Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Sperm is directly injected into the egg retrieved from your partner or donor
Screening tests
One of the first steps towards freezing sperm/embryos is taking a blood test for various infectious diseases (HIV, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B).
If you were to be positive for one of these diseases, it would not mean that you can’t go ahead with your fertility preservation. It would only mean that your sperm/embryos will be stored in a special tank.
If you wish to have your sperm used in your partner’s treatment, they will also need to be screened accordingly. If you are considering having a surrogate carry your future child, then you will have to be treated by law as a donor for the purpose of screening and therefore you will need additional testing. This involves tests for further infectious diseases, additional genetic screening and a period of quarantine for the sperm following which re-testing is required.
Storage
You can store your sperm for any amount of time up to 55 years, however you will need to re-consent at a maximum of ten yearly intervals.
Consent forms
We will provide you with the appropriate consent forms before the start of your fertility preservation and/or treatment. You will have time to go through these forms and you will have many opportunities to ask questions to our nurses and doctors.
Support
We will make everything possible for you to feel safe while in treatment with us. If you have questions before, during and/or after your treatment, we will always make time to give you a call back or to accommodate you when you come to the clinic.
We also have fertility counsellors working at King’s Fertility. They are all accredited by the British Infertility Counselling Association (BICA). You will be given their contact details should you need extra support.