Klinefelter Fertility Preservation

Klinefelter syndrome occurs in 1 in 600 males and is a common cause of infertility in men.
It appears scar tissue forms in these boys' testicles, leading to progressive destruction
over their lifetimes. Advanced reproductive technology can be used to surgically retrieve
sperm from these individuals, but these methods have a 50% failure rate in adult Klinefelter
patients. Younger men have higher success rates, suggesting that adolescence and young
adulthood may be the best time to extract sperm, but these techniques have not been studied
in Klinefelter patients younger than 26 years of age. Additionally, there is currently no
way to predict which Klinefelter patients will have success with these methods and which of
them will not. This trial will explore sperm extraction in Klinefelter syndrome in an age
range (12-25 years) that has never been studied, with the ultimate hope of improving the
potential for fertility in these patients. The specific goals of this study are to
determine the ideal age for sperm retrieval in Klinefelter patients and to establish factors
that can be used to predict which of these patients will have a higher likelihood of success
with advanced reproductive technology. The hypothesis is that younger Klinefelter patients
will have higher sperm retrieval rates.