Embryoscope Center India

If cancer treatment is here can fertility be far behind?

Ever since cancer treatments have become increasingly effective, fertility issues have gained prominence. Those children who survived childhood affliction grew to adulthood and nursed hopes of having their own child.

Ovaries and testes of young patients are more resilient than they were thought to be. Researchers have proved that as many as two-thirds of female childhood cancer survivors, with fertility treatment in adulthood, conceived successfully. Cancer treatments in young males result in low sperm count or damaged sperms. Chemotherapy kills both the cancer cells as well as healthy ones including sperms. Radiation near testicles can cause infertility. In women cancer treatment can speed up menopause. Chemotherapy can damage the eggs. As women are born with the total number of eggs for lifetime, damaged eggs cannot be replaced.

However, being a cancer survivor should be a factor but not the deciding factor regarding decision on having a child. It is very important to discuss with the patients the impact cancer treatment would have on the reproductive system. During treatment, shields are placed over testicles to reduce the damage to fertility in men. In women, in alternative stimulation method, only eggs that mature naturally during menstrual cycles are retrieved. Breast cancer patients may be able to undergo IVF using certain medicines which may protect the breast from the effects of estrogen due to the treatment of standard hormones used in infertility treatments. Another option is IVM where immatured eggs are retrieved and made to mature in the lab and without using any hormones .However this is still at a nascent stage.

Women are advised to wait for three to five years before conceiving. It takes six months for damaged eggs to leave the body. For men, it takes two years for the damaged sperms to repair. Miscarriages, pre-term delivery, low birth-weight are some the risks associated with post cancer pregnancies. Women who undergo chemotherapy will experience chemo-induced menopause or infertility. Yet, there have been cases where ovarian functions have resumed after a few years and women could conceive even before menstruating.

Oncofertility advises Sperm banking, testicular extraction for men and for women harvesting eggs, fertilizing and freezing embryos and storing for future use as options available to both men and women.