Many breast cancer patients receive chemotherapy and radiation therapy, both of which can affect a patient’s fertility.
If a patient wants to have children, it is important to tell your doctor and communicate with him or her before starting breast cancer treatment. Ask questions related to your specific treatment plan.
How does treatment affect fertility?
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells, and these drugs can also damage some normal cells, including the cells that produce eggs. There is no way to completely protect a patient’s ovaries during chemotherapy. The effect of the drugs on fertility is related to the type of drug the patient uses, the length of treatment, and the age of the individual. For some patients, the effects of chemotherapy are only temporary.
Radiotherapy treats cancer with radiation or radioactive material. The potential effects of radiation on fertility are not as great as those of chemotherapy drugs, and the radiation beams target only the area that is exposed to radiation, which is far from the reproductive organs. But these beams may penetrate normal tissues and organs, which can lead to infertility. Sometimes infertility is only temporary.
Breast cancer treatment measures can reduce a patient’s sex drive, which can reduce the chances of having children. Hormonal changes, fatigue, nausea, and self-image can also decrease a patient’s sex drive.
Can I preserve my fertility after treatment?
There are a number of methods that can be used to increase the chances of having children later in life, including:
Cryopreservation, a process of freezing and storing fertilized eggs (called embryos) for later use. After the patient recovers from treatment, the embryos can be implanted in their own uterus or in a surrogate woman’s uterus. Unfertilized eggs are more fragile and can be easily damaged during the freezing process, so they are not as well preserved.
Choose less toxic chemotherapy drugs. Some drugs may cause less damage to reproductive organs, but they are also less effective in treating breast cancer. The doctor will analyze whether a less toxic drug is right for the patient.
Hormone suppression is a method that does not affect the reproductive system. It uses hormones to keep the body from producing eggs temporarily, a process that appears to protect cells that can develop into eggs from damage during breast cancer treatment.