Attitudes of physicians and parents towards discussing infertility risks and semen cryopreservation with male adolescents diagnosed with cancer

BACKGROUND: In paediatric oncology, the risk of infertility due to treatment constitutes an important problem. For sexually mature male adolescents, sperm cryopreservation is an option, but discussing the topic is complex because of the sensitive nature and the limited time frame. In this article, we determined attitudes and preferred roles of physicians and parents towards discussing sperm banking with male adolescents. METHODS: Qualitative multi-centre study, using in-depth semi-structured interviews with 14 physicians and 15 parents of male adolescents undergoing cancer treatment. RESULTS: Although physicians and parents agreed that infertility would have a major impact on the future quality of life, they sometimes disagreed on whether the topic should be discussed with adolescents. Physicians always wanted a separate discussion with adolescents because of the sensitive nature and the experience that parents sometimes misjudged the stage of maturity of their son. Parents, however, wanted control over whether physicians discussed the topic with their child and what was said. Physicians did not accept this control and, when necessary, were willing to bypass the parents and discuss the topic with the adolescent even when parents refused consent. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians face the difficult task of balancing between their ideas of what is in the (future) interest of the adolescent and accommodating parental wishes. We argue that, because of the private character of sexuality and the potentially inadequate maturity assessment by parents, semen cryopreservation should be discussed separately with adolescent and parents. In addition, there should be an open communication with parents to address potential discomforts.