The study aims to assess current international clinician attitudes, practices and barriers towards fertility assessment and preservation in patients undergoing radical inguinal orchidectomy (RIO) for testicular cancer.
An international online survey of urologists and urologists in training who perform RIO for testicular cancer was developed by the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) Sections of Andrology and Oncology and the British Urology Researchers in Surgical Training (BURST). The recruitment process used social media and the emailing lists of national urological societies. Responses were collected between 10/02/2021 and 31/05/2021 and stored using password-protected Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) database software. The primary outcome was the proportion of urologists who routinely offer semen cryopreservation prior to RIO. The study was reported according to the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys platform.
A total of 393 respondents took part in the online survey; of these, the majority were from the United Kingdom (65.9%), with the remaining international respondents (34.1%) from six different continents, which included 45 different countries. Of the respondents, 57.1% reported that they would routinely offer semen cryopreservation to all patients undergoing RIO for testicular cancer. In addition, 36.0% of urologists routinely performed pre-operative semen analysis, and 22.1% routinely performed pre-operative testicular serum hormone profile. Of the respondents, 14.4% performed expedited RIO within 48 h; 31.2% of respondents reported that they considered no delay to RIO to allow for semen cryopreservation to be acceptable.
A significant proportion of international urologists do not offer pre-operative fertility assessment and preservation in men undergoing RIO for testicular cancer. Surgery is performed in an expedited fashion within 1 week in the majority of patients. Urologists perceive there to be a lack of access and availability to fertility services, and that delay to RIO to allow for fertility preservation is often not acceptable.
BJUI compass. 2024 Apr 26*** epublish ***
Abi Kanthabalan, Anthony Emmanuel, Cameron Alexander, Nikita Bhatt, Vinson Chan, Odunayo Kalejaiye, Krishna Narahari, Veeru Kasivisvanathan, Majid Shabbir
Department of Urology Worcestershire Royal Hospital Worcester UK., Department of Urology Freeman Hospital Newcastle upon Tyne UK., Department of Urology Royal Bolton Hospital Manchester UK., Department of Urology Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Norwich UK., School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health University of Leeds Leeds UK., Department of Urology University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust Bristol UK., Department of Urology Cardiff and Vale University Health Board Cardiff UK., Department of Urology Guy's & St. Thomas' Hospital London UK.