ABSTRACT
The history of human semen cryopreservation stretches back some 200 years to the first recorded experiments involving cooling followed by successful rewarming of spermatozoa in snow.1 Despite this early success, it was not until the fortuitous discovery of glycerol as a cryoprotectant2 and subsequent live birth of a calf3 in the early 1950s that cryopreservation of human semen for assisted reproduction became a feasible option. The ability to store human semen greatly improved the flexibility of donor insemination treatment, resulting in the first live human births in 1953.4 Artificial insemination with donor semen as a method of circumventing severe male infertility became a mainstay of fertility treatment for the next 40 years.5
