Cancer Survivors Have a One-Third Lower Chance of Pregnancy - But

Cancer diagnosis and treatment are known to affect fertility. A Scottish study followed more than 23.000 women with cancer between 1981 and 2012. Based on community data, 11.000 pregnancies were expected, but 6.627 occurred. Women diagnosed with cancer thus had a pregnancy rate one-third lower than the general population.

Cancer-related fertility loss most often affected women who had not had a baby before treatment, meaning younger women.

The main cause of fertility loss in women receiving cancer care is treatment such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Another important reason is fear and anxiety about having a child even after complete recovery and despite being fertile. They fear recurrence and doubt their health. However, another studywhose results were announced this year found no difference in recurrence likelihood or cancer-related mortality between early-stage breast cancer patients completing pregnancy after treatment and being followed up, and those not becoming pregnant.

Cancer treatments have become more successful in recent years, and side effects are better controlled. Accordingly, since 2005, fertility rates in women receiving cancer treatment have risen to %75.

Medical and technological advances now offer other opportunities more promising than in earlier years, such as retrieving eggs before treatment, freezing themand using them for a healthy pregnancy after treatment. Cryopreservation is the name of this method, which freezes eggs, embryos or sperm and can enable a cancer patient to have children after treatment.

Considering that even %10-15 of healthy couples worldwide have children with assistance, cancer patients benefiting from cryopreservation is quite natural. Particularly young breast cancer patients must be offered cryopreservation as a fertility-preserving method before treatment begins.