Overview

Some treatments for cancer or other medical conditions might affect your fertility and ability to have a child. Changes to your fertility can be temporary but it’s also possible for chemotherapy or radiotherapy to permanently affect your ovaries (which produce and store eggs) and womb.

Having fertility preservation treatment before starting your main treatment might give you options to have a baby in the future, when you're fully recovered.

If there is a risk that chemotherapy or radiotherapy will affect your ability to have children, your doctor will refer you to our service for a consultation. This will give you the opportunity to talk about your situation before you start treatment so you can decide if you want to have fertility preservation treatment or not. 

Our fertility preservation service is here to support you during this time. After your main treatment finishes, the fertility clinic can check your fertility. We realise that the diagnosis of cancer, and coping with the treatment, can be a difficult time for you. We're here to answer any questions or concerns you might have.

Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and your fertility

It can be difficult to know if chemotherapy will affect your fertility, and if any issues will be temporary or permanent. Not everyone's fertility is affected, and it will depend on your age and the type of treatment you have. 

• Chemotherapy can affect your ovaries and can reduce the number of eggs you were born with. Your eggs, once fertilised, have the potential to become a baby.
• Radiotherapy can also affect the production of eggs if directed to the pelvis where your ovaries are, and can also damage your womb lining and reduce hormone levels. 
• Surgery and hormone therapy might also affect your fertility.

Talking about your fertility preservation options

At your first appointment with us, you'll have the opportunity to talk to a doctor about your personal risks of facing fertility problems in the future and your fertility preservation options. We'll ask for your medical history, take some tests, and offer fertility advice based on your circumstances and future treatment.

Importantly, we'll talk about how the fertility preservation process affects when you can start your main treatment. We'll talk about the benefits and risks with you, so you can make an informed choice. In some circumstances, we might start fertility preservation on the same day to minimise the delay to cancer treatment or urgent treatment starting. 

We might offer you:

• freezing eggs or embryos
• ovarian tissue freezing (cryopreservation)

Checking your future fertility potential

Our doctor will check your fertility to help decide what treatment would be most suitable for you. We do some assessments such as a scan and blood test that tell us about your egg reserve.

All women are born with a certain number of eggs. This number declines with age, until it disappears completely and you stop having periods and develop menopause. However, the number of eggs we're born with and how fast they decline is different for different people. That's why it's important to know what your personal egg reserve is before we predict how chemotherapy might or might not affect your future fertility. Using this information, along with your age and type of treatment we think you'll have, we can estimate your personalised risks of infertility in the future. 

We check your ovarian reserve using blood tests and a transvaginal ultrasound scan to count follicles (fluid filled structures that contain developing eggs). 

It's OK to decide you do not want any of the fertility preservation treatment options if you feel it's not the right thing for you. But most people feel it's still important to have the consultation before starting chemotherapy or radiotherapy so they can make a more informed decision about their treatment.

Whatever your decision, we are here to support you and offer you a follow up appointment once you've completed your main treatment.

Emotional support

Fertility counselling

Our fertility counselling service can provide additional support for you and your partner, and discuss the implications on fertility of the chemotherapy or radiotherapy. You can also have counselling even after you've completed fertility preservation treatment. 

If you’d like to see a counsellor, please call 020 7188 7641 and leave a message.

Our fertility preservation support nurse will also be able to give you support and advice.

Relationship difficulties

The diagnosis of cancer and coping with treatment can be stressful, creating difficulties in physical and emotional relationships.

You might feel differently about yourself, and concerned about how your partner feels about you. Many people are embarrassed, or feel it’s not the most important thing to talk about with their doctor. This is quite common but we do have a skilled team to help you and give you support.

Follow up appointments after main treatment

You'll have the option to be seen in the follow-up clinic to check your ovarian function after completing your main treatment. This is so you can make informed choices about your future fertility plans. Ovarian function might take several months to recover so we recommend waiting for at least 1 year after you finish cancer treatment before checking your fertility.

We check your menstrual and ovarian function to see if or how much the treatment affected your fertility. We are happy to see you and offer advice, even if you're not trying actively to have a baby at this time.

If your previous treatment affects your ability to conceive naturally and you had fertility preservation, we can talk about options for using your stored tissue when you're ready.

Our follow up clinic could provide further advice if your periods stop completely, or if your ovaries stop working. We will be happy to support with advice about hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

We can also provide care for people who may use donor reproductive cells (like sperm or eggs) or surrogacy.