The improved survival in recent years of young males suffering from cancer, and an understanding of the gonadotoxic effects of chemotherapy treatment, have motivated patients and clinicians to preserve fertility potential before embarking on adjuvant therapy. Among 231 men (mean age 28.0; range 15-56 years) diagnosed with malignant disease and referred to our unit for semen cryopreservation, 112 patients (49.8%) had reduced sperm quality of <10 x 10(6) motile spermatozoa per ejaculate; however, most had sufficient suitable spermatozoa for freezing. In 40 patients (17.3 %) the semen samples were not frozen because of complete azoospermia (n = 32) or only immotile sperm in the ejaculate (n = 2), while six men were unable to produce a single sample. Some 79 men had testicular tumours (group I), 121 suffered from haematological malignancy (leukaemia or lymphoma; group II), and 27 had cancer of different causes (group III). Men in group I had significantly lower (P < 0.001) sperm quality compared with groups II and III. There was no difference between patients with seminoma and non-seminoma tumours. In the haematological malignancy group there was no difference in sperm parameters between leukaemia (n = 12) and lymphoma (n = 77) patients, but patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma had significantly lower sperm quality compared with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Following chemotherapy, six couples attended the clinic for assisted conception treatment using the frozen semen. Two had successful intrauterine insemination cycles which each resulted in delivery of a healthy girl; one couple had conceived in their first in-vitro fertilization (IVF) attempt, followed by delivery of healthy twins. Two women conceived after intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment and the sixth woman achieved only biochemical pregnancy after numerous IVF and frozen embryo replacement cycles. We recommend that a properly designed programme for semen cryopreservation for cancer patients should be developed in leading tertiary assisted conception centres, which have adequate facilities and experience for cryopreservation and can offer the whole range of appropriate assisted reproductive treatment and counselling.

The physiological trigger for meiotic resumption in the human oocyte is the surge of luteinizing hormone, but it can also occur spontaneously if oocytes are released from antral follicles and cultured in vitro. The development of novel techniques for the culture of murine oocytes has raised the possibility of growing human oocytes to maturity in vitro. Such a system could open the door to a number of techniques with revolutionary consequences. It would clearly be of benefit in basic physiological studies of follicular development, as well as being used to test the effect of toxicological substances on oocyte maturation. More significantly, such a system could provide a source of human oocytes for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) where immature or germinal vesicle oocytes are cultured to maturity before being fertilized. If this can be achieved, it might facilitate oocyte cryopreservation, where surplus oocytes are stored, thus avoiding the need for repeated superovulation. A combination of immature oocyte cryopreservation for later maturation and IVF will provide the opportunity to establish oocyte banks and help overcome some of the practical and ethical dilemmas that are currently shadowing the field of reproductive medicine.

The case of a 28 year old male with normal male phenotype, in whom repeated seminal analysis showed complete azoospermia, is presented. Peripheral blood culture for chromosome studies revealed 46 chromosomes with XX constitution. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of genomic DNA failed to detect the presence of the sex-determining region of the Y chromosome (SRY). A literature review of all SRY-negative XX males with normal male phenotype showed that this case is the sixth reported case but the first to be diagnosed during the investigations of infertility. The frequency, aetiology and diagnosis of this rare syndrome are also reviewed.

Ectopic pregnancy may be the only life-threatening disease in which prevalence has increased as mortality has declined. The most prominent theory to explain this phenomenon involves increased sensitivity of serum beta-human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) immunoassay and improved quality of transvaginal ultrasound, combined with a heightened awareness and increased suspicion of the condition among clinicians which has allowed early detection of ectopic pregnancy. Laparotomy, once the standard treatment of ectopic pregnancy, has been replaced almost entirely by operative laparoscopy. This is associated with a shorter hospital stay, fewer post-operative analgesic requirements, reduced costs and lower risk of adhesion formation. Laparotomy, however, remains necessary in cases with haemodynamic instability and with exceptional locations, e.g. cervical, abdominal and interstitial implantation. In selected cases, non-surgical management has also obtained high success rates. Among medical therapies, the most common is systemic or local administration of methotrexate. The other option is expectant management involving follow-up using serial serum HCG measurements and ultrasound scans. Thus, life-threatening ectopic pregnancy is now evolving into a medical disease, with the possibility of lower-cost treatment, faster recovery and higher subsequent fertility. In this review we assess the risk of extra-uterine implantation after assisted conception treatment, the accuracy of various diagnostic tools and focus on the efficacy, safety and the fertility outcomes of surgical and nonsurgical management of ectopic pregnancy.

Small endometrial polyps, less than 2 cm, do not decrease the pregnancy rate, but there is a trend toward increased pregnancy loss. A policy of oocyte retrieval, polypectomy, freezing the embryos, and replacing them in the future might increase the "take-home baby" rate.