Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

He was only 10 years old when leukemia struck. And it took many rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and a bone marrow transplant to cure him. Now married, he asked me a simple question: “I know there is nothing in my semen Doc, but can I have my own kids?
Sterility after cancer treatment. A tough case for sure. So, I pulled out my biggest gun and performed the trustworthy fine needle aspiration mapping procedure on him and found sperm in his testicles.
“Yes, you can,” I told him. I also informed him that I know of only 2 other men who have sperm after this much cancer treatment and I published those cases several years ago. His face lit up, filled with hope.

Conquering Azoospermia

As the inventor of Sperm Mapping™, you bet I think it’s the cats meow for letting men with severe infertility and azoospermia know if they can be fathers or not. An office procedure, done in about an hour, with a short recovery, Mapping is the least invasive and most elegant way to answer the question of whether biological fatherhood is possible. But what do patients think?

The Patient’s Opinion

Here are some thoughts from mapped patients about the procedure:

  • “It really is the modern equivalent of testicular cartography.”
  • “Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map.”
  • “Gotta love the ‘know before you go’ approach.”
  • “Hated the results but loved the recovery.”
  • “You got “x” amount of testicle; use it wisely.”
  • “Compared to my other options, Mapping is the most logical.”
  • “Man, that technique can find sperm from a rock.”
  • “As a scientist, Mapping makes biological sense to me.”
  • “The bad news was far worse than the recovery after Mapping.”
  • “Much easier than a visit to my dentist.”

Maybe it’s a karma thing, but I have always felt that you should be as kind as possible to your fellow man. Maybe that’s why Sperm Mapping™ is as popular as ever well into its second decade of life.