A man was left devastated after finding out he wouldn't be able to have his own biological children because his sperm sample was misplaced by a Fertility Associates clinic.
Fertility Associates has apologised to the man after an investigation found his sample had likely been accidentally discarded when the storage bank holding the samples was decommissioned, according to a Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) report.
The man, in his 40s, had decided to preserve his sperm after he was diagnosed with cancer as a teenager.
Before his chemotherapy treatment, a sample was collected and stored using a process called cryopreservation in 1995.
While sperm can be stored indefinitely in liquid nitrogen, the Human Assisted Reproduction Technology Act 2004 imposes a 10-year limit on storage.
For anything being stored beyond that, an application must be made to an ethics watchdog for extended storage. The man applied in 2014 and it was granted.
Eventually, the man was in a place in life where he wanted to start a family.
He and his partner began the IVF process in April 2018 with Fertility Associates. The pair set out to use his stored sperm and her eggs to conceive their first child.
After his partner went through her first egg collection, the clinic attempted to find the man's sperm so they could begin the fertilisation process but they were unable to locate his sample.
The clinic contacted him immediately and requested to cryoperserve his partner's egg samples while they attempted to look for them, which the couple agreed to.
For a week between May 25 and June 2, 2018, the clinic searched for his sample but were unable to locate it.
He and his partner were left disappointed and angry after enduring the "long and difficult process" of collecting her eggs without Fertility Associates having confirmed his sperm was available.
The man complained to Fertility Associates and engaged in mediation, but shared concerns with HDC "about Fertility Associates’ processes, including their procedures for storing samples and their policy for responding to serious adverse events".
He had been advised of his options going forward, one being getting tests to see if he had anymore viable sperm of his own. Results from the procedure indicated he did not.
The couple were asked if they wanted to use a sperm donor but they declined.
Fertility Associates launched an investigation to determine what happened to his samples. It was discovered they were last accounted for in 2011, during a physical audit.
It was accepted the canister storing the man's sperm sample most likely was accidentally discarded.
Fertility Associates participated in a mediation with the man, which resulted in a legal settlement.
"I acknowledge that loss of samples is a rare and devastating risk to assisted reproductive technologies, however, I am critical that Fertility Associates lost the man’s sperm samples, and that its systems were unable to provide evidence of how or when the loss occurred," Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Vanessa Caldwell said.
She found Fertility Associates had failed to provide services with reasonable care and skill.
"Fertility Associates has a responsibility to ensure the safe storage of samples in its possession and to have robust systems in place to prevent loss occurring."
Caldwell received advice from Michael Chapman, an obstetrician and gynaecologist who is the clinical director of IVF Australia in southern Sydney. He said the error had huge consequences for the man and his partner.
"The loss of the storage samples for this man has meant that while he had hoped to have a genetically related child, this is now not possible. This assumes that he has lost all testicular function as the result of his chemotherapy.
"Clearly the systems of record keeping and audit have failed. It would appear that the most recent audit on the transfer to Medifex, the loss of the samples was not detected.
"But this may not be the only time that the loss was missed. It cannot be determined when this occurred."
Since the complaint, Caldwell noted Fertility Associates had undertaken a number of actions to improve its services. These included that samples are split between multiple locations in certain circumstances, updating its auditing tool for retiring storage banks, and changing its policies to require an incident report be raised when a sample is not in its location recorded.
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