Fertility problems due to cancer and cancer treatment upsetting most of the men and women psychologically. The risk of infertility due to cancer and cancer treatment might be high, moderate or low based on your treatment plan.
However, it’s important to talk to a fertility expert when you are diagnosed with cancer or before you begin cancer treatment in young age. You might have a chance to preserve your future generation. We suggest consulting our fertility preservation specialist at Angels Fertility Clinic to discuss your options further for fertility preservation.
Remember, there are a lot more ways to build a happy family if you are not able to preserve your fertility after cancer. Talking to our specialist can help you to explore different options which might be best for you. Usually, those who pursued fertility preservation can cope better with treatment for cancer.
How cancer treatment affect your fertility?
When you are getting treatment for cancer, specific treatments might harm your fertility, and the effects may be permanent or temporary. There are a lot of factors associated with cancer treatment to harm your fertility that includes the stage of cancer, type of treatment, and your age at the time of treatment. Below are the type of cancer treatments and their effects.
Surgery: Some surgeries involve in the removal of the testicles, uterus or ovaries, which might harm your fertility.
Chemotherapy: The effects on fertility depends on the usage of drugs and the dose. Younger women are less likely to become infertile than older women who are undergoing chemotherapy.
Radiation: Radiation therapies cause more damage to fertility than chemotherapy. The intensity of damage depends on the location and area of the radiation field, and the dosage gave.
Other cancer treatments: Hormone therapies used for breast cancer in women can also affect fertility. But often, fertility might be restored after the treatment stops.
When to talk to a doctor about fertility preservation?
If you planned to go for cancer treatment and want to preserve your fertility, then you must talk to a fertility specialist as soon as possible. A fertility specialist can guide you and help you understand your options for preserving your fertility before and even during your cancer treatment.
Once treatment starts, eggs of women or sperm in men will get damaged and make it difficult or impossible to preserve them. Not only fewer eggs or sperm left to preserve, but also the DNA-damaged or genetic disordered eggs and sperm are found. So most of the experts suggest consulting fertility experts in case of cancer treatments.
How to preserve fertility in women with cancer?
Women who are are suffering from cancer problem have various options to preserve their fertility. Which include:
Embryo freezing: It is also called embryo cryopreservation which is the most successful procedure for fertility preservation. It involves the harvesting of eggs of a woman and fertilized by sperm in a laboratory. Then the resulting embryos are frozen at sub-zero temperatures for future.
Oocyte cryopreservation or Oocyte freezing: This is a procedure similar to embryo cryopreservation, but the eggs are frozen without fertilizing them by sperm. This is an option that is slightly unsuccessful than embryo freezing.
Fertility-preserving surgery: Some types of surgeries like surgery for cervical cancer, surgery for ovarian cancer can also preserve fertility.
Radiation shielding: This procedure involves placing small lead shields over the ovaries in case of treating ovarian cancer to reduce the amount of radiation they receive.
Ovarian transposition: Also called oophoropexy where the ovaries are repositioned surgically in the pelvis with this procedure so that they are out of the radiation field when treating the pelvic area. After the treatment, they need to be repositioned again to conceive.
Ovarian tissue preservation: This procedure involves surgically removing and freezing ovarian tissues of women. After cancer treatment, the surgeon will transplant the tissue.
Ovarian suppression is also another procedure for fertility preservation in women. For young girls, ovarian tissue preservation might be the only option who cannot undergo embryo freezing.
How to preserve fertility in men with cancer?
Men can also take steps in fertility preservation before undergoing cancer treatment. Which include:
Sperm cryopreservation: This is a procedure where the sperm of a man is frozen and stored at fertility clinics or sperm banks for future use. These sperm samples can be frozen and stored for years.
Radiation shielding: In this procedure, the testicles are covered with small lead shields to reduce the amount of radiation they receive.
Fertility preservation associated with cancer will be different from patient to patient. Consult our fertility experts at Angels Fertility Clinic for the best solution. You no need worry, consult our specialists, and we will take care of your fertility preservation.