Before David Goodack underwent cancer treatment at age 20, nobody suggested he preserve a sample of his sperm. Mr. Goodack himself didn’t think of it, even though his physician warned that the necessary surgery could render him infertile — as it did. “I was just thinking about surviving,” says Mr. Goodack, a Kansas City, Mo., press foreman, now 44 and childless.

Since Mr. Goodack’s surgery, hundreds of thousands of babies have been conceived with preserved samples of sperm. Yet a September article in the journal Cancer found that during the decade ended in 2005, only 18% of 821 young, male cancer patients had chosen to freeze samples of their sperm before undergoing treatment. Experts say the problem is that amid the terror of a cancer diagnosis, the only immediate concern too often is survival. At a time when survival is more the rule than the exception for young cancer patients, child-bearing options are an unnecessary casualty of treatment.

Now, two advocacy groups are teaming up with a for-profit sperm bank to make sperm-collection kits available across the country. The kits — which will be distributed to oncology professionals nationwide starting this month — contain the materials and instructions necessary for patients to produce a usable sperm sample at home or in the hospital. It includes a postage-paid package for fast delivery to Cryogenic Laboratories Inc., a Roseville, Minn., sperm bank, so no ice is needed for transport. Cryogenic Laboratories will charge $625 for processing and freezing the specimen for one year. The storage cost of each subsequent year — frozen sperm can remain potent for decades — is $280. In some cases, insurance will help defray that cost.

Of the 35,000 young men diagnosed with cancer each year, about 90% risk losing their fertility to chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. Cancer treatments sterilize men and women alike, but preserving the fertility of women is more complicated and expensive — and more publicized.

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