Fertility

fertilityWhen you’re diagnosed with cancer, you often want to just get started with your treatment. Among the whirlwind of hospital appointments, scans and tests, fertility discussions may seem overwhelming – but they’re important to have as soon as possible. 

Our 2012 survey of young adults with cancer found that 50% of respondents didn’t feel that they’d been adequately supported to preserve their fertility prior to starting treatment. Speaking with your consultant or nurse as soon as possible after diagnosis will help you to understand the changes in your body, the long-term effects of treatment, and the options available to you.

For women, treatment can cause damage to the eggs, womb, cervix or hormone production, or start an early menopause, and for men, it could be that your sperm production slows down or stops, or you could have problems maintaining an erection. It can be hard to predict exactly what effect your treatment will have on your fertility, but if having a child (or more children) is important to you, you should find out as much as you can about fertility preservation before starting treatment. 

We know from talking with you that even if your doctor talks about fertility when you’re diagnosed, it is often not discussed again when your treatment has finished. It may only be after finishing treatment that you begin to consider whether you’d like to have children, and the impact of your treatment on your ability to have children is fully realised.

The emotional impact that reduced fertility or infertility can have is different for everyone; from devastated, to numb, confused, accepting, or in denial, there is no ‘standard’ response. Finding out whether you’re still fertile after treatment can give you the knowledge to make the right decisions for you; such as going down the route of IVF, donors, surrogacy, or adoption. Check out the resources below to help you through this process.

  • We spoke with onco-fertility expert, Kathryn Nattress, in these videos to find out the potential side effects of cancer treatment, the risks of having a baby after treatment, and what to do if your treatment has caused infertility.
  • Listen to our podcast on coping when you’re infertile after cancer.
  • Hear from other young adults with cancer on how they coped with fertility issues after cancer in our blog.
  • Watch our videos on alternative ways of building a family using surrogacy or donor conception.
  • Join our private Shine Facebook group and chat with over 2,000 other young adults about your experiences
  • We also have a private Facebook group about Menopause after Cancer that you’re welcome to join.

Podcasts on fertility

Videos on fertility after cancer

Having a family via donor conception

Surrogacy as a route to parenthood

If treatment has caused infertility....

What are the general risks of cancer treatment for fertility?

Are there risks if you have a baby after treatment?

Long-term implications of treatment-induced menopause

Emotional aspects of loss of fertility

Relevant articles from our blog

Coping with menopause after cancer: when HRT is not an option

Coping with menopause after cancer: when HRT is not an option

While many people know about breast cancer, living with the aftermath of treatment can be tough. Menopause is getting more attention these days but those young adults who can't take hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) can often feel left out and unseen. In this blog,...

Adoption after cancer

Adoption after cancer

In this guest blog post, Emma Owen from PACT discusses adoption after cancer and finds out the answers to some of the Shine Cancer Support community's burning questions. As a charity that finds adoptive parents for children in care, we get all sorts of questions from...

Life – but not as you knew it: Coping with infertility

In many cases, cancer treatment affects fertility.  Here at Shine we know that (a) health care practitioners don't always deal with fertility and cancer issues very well and (b) questions about fertility can be one of the toughest things to deal with after a...

Life – but not as you knew it: Pregnant Pause

In our last blog, Sam Reynolds shared her experiences of living with cancer and a small child. But what if your cancer treatment has affected your pregnancy and fertility? Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other drugs can all affect the ability to have children. For many...

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