Edinburgh Doctors Carry Out UK's First Frozen Testicular Tissue Transplant to Help Restore Fertility
A 19-year-old who froze tissue before cancer-related treatment as a teenager is the second person reported worldwide to receive this experimental procedure.
Photo: Chrysi Chrysochou / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Doctors in Edinburgh have performed the first transplant of frozen testicular tissue in the UK, and only the second reported anywhere in the world, the University of Edinburgh announced on October 8. NHS Lothian carried out the trial procedure in August, building on about a decade of university research.
The patient is a 19-year-old student who has asked to remain anonymous. His tissue was removed and frozen in 2023, before a bone marrow transplant for a serious blood disorder. The high-dose chemotherapy involved can permanently damage sperm-producing cells, and tests three years later found no sperm in his semen.
"A big step towards helping boys facing treatments that damage their fertility to have children of their own." — Professor Rod Mitchell, University of Edinburgh
Why it matters
Adults and teenagers who have gone through puberty can freeze semen before treatment. Boys who have not reached puberty cannot, so storing testicular tissue is the only option being explored for them, and there is no established clinical method yet for putting it to use.
- Patients with tissue stored: more than 1,200 in the UK and 3,100 worldwide
- Project start: 2015, funded by the charity Children with Cancer UK
- Further funding: the same charity backed the transplantation study in 2024
Earlier work in non-human primates showed that frozen tissue could be transplanted back successfully, and the sperm it produced led to a live birth through assisted reproduction. Belgium reported the first human case earlier in 2026.
What happens next
The patient has recovered well. About eight months after the operation, some of the transplanted tissue will be removed and examined to see whether it has produced sperm.
The team is clear that this is a trial and that the outcome is unknown. The patient said the possibility means a great deal to him, while noting that "we don't know yet whether it will work."
For families facing childhood cancer or other conditions that need fertility-damaging treatment, the work is a hopeful sign that tissue stored today may one day be usable.
