Sperm freezing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The march of progress is continuing in China, too. Lu Guangxiu, 77, who has helped produce more than 40,000 babies via IVF, runs China's largest sperm bank and reproductive center, the Reproductive and Genetic Hospital of CITIC-Xiangya in Changsha, Hunan province.

Lu says that until now the hospital has focused on receiving sperm donations, the core activity for almost all sperm banks in China, but now it plans to make the business of male fertility preservation its central focus. The main difference between those two services is that in the first case the donors are passing on the hope of birth to others, while in the second case they are keeping the hope for themselves.

"Since the 1980s, people have been coming to me to have their sperm frozen," Lu says. "When a man knows he can produce offspring it fuels his desire to survive.

"The sole thing that many cancer patients are preoccupied with is how much time they have before they die. They seldom think about wanting to survive so they can live a quality life. It's as if they are sentenced to life imprisonment. I want them to know that they can still father children. They deserve hope."

Lu set up China's first sperm bank in 1981, about three years after the world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in England. In 1983 Lu produced the first frozen-sperm baby born via artificial insemination in China. More than 13,500 men have stored their sperm in Lu's bank for long-term and temporary preservation. About 230 of those have had their sperm stored purely for insurance purposes, and the rest have sought IVF treatment. In recent years, more than 2,000 men a year have applied for the two services, Lu says. The oldest semen has been in storage for 10 years.