With modern infertility treatments, it makes sense to bank sperm even if you have a low sperm count or motility. New techniques of in vitro fertilization often can achieve pregnancy by injecting just one live sperm cell into an egg. The embryos that develop can be replaced into the woman's uterus. Men with better semen quality may be able to use their samples to create a pregnancy by simple insemination of their partner, a much less expensive and involved procedure than going through in vitro fertilization. If semen quality is high enough to permit artificial insemination as your eventual choice of fertility treatment, the chance of a successful pregnancy will increase with the number of samples you bank.
More samples allow more tries at insemination.
If the treatment will be in vitro fertilization, one sample may be enough, but it is still a good idea to store several samples. For each pregnancy that you desire, you should bank between three and six specimens, depending on their semen quality. Samples of semen do not deteriorate even over many years of deep freezing. Banking sperm before cancer treatment may allow a teenager or young adult to become a father years later, when he is ready to start a family. For a man who is about to have a vasectomy, therapeutic sperm banking provides an option to father a child if his life circumstances change.