We hope that all patients of reproductive age who are diagnosed with cancer have the opportunity to discuss oncofertility with their provider shortly after diagnosis. This conversation should include the options, risks, benefits and various outcomes of available fertility preservation techniques. Oncofertility decisions can have a big impact on a cancer patients life, both in the moment and as they move forward through treatment, recovery and remission.
One aspect of oncofertility decision-making that needs to be explored is the impact the actual conversation can have on a newly diagnosed cancer patient. This discussion may have a significant effect on patients who were previously ambivalent or not interested in having biological children. What was not an issue in this individual’s life prior to their diagnosis may now become something with which they struggle. It’s true that not everyone plans to have children and what you may feel in your mid-20s could certainly change as you age and your life circumstances change. Nonetheless, men and women often make a conscious decision not to have children.
Discussing fertility preservation may lead a cancer patient to struggle with a decision that was already made prior to their diagnosis because they feel it should be important to them. A cancer patient’s journey is complex and although fertility preservation options provide so much hope and joy to some, it can be a mixed blessing for others. According to Leonard Sender, MD in “Reading Between the Lines of Cancer and Fertility: A Providers Story,” “having children is no longer a default expectation of becoming an adult, or even of getting married.” Thus, a provider shouldn’t assume that just because a patient can have children, doesn’t necessarily mean they want to.
For a newly diagnosed cancer patient, all the decisions they make will have a big influence on their lives from the point of diagnosis onward. It’s important for providers to consider that not all patients want fertility preservation and that these decisions may have been weighed and assessed long before the cancer diagnosis, not because the patient is focused on other aspects of their treatment. To read more about this, including a case study of a cancer patient who chose not to pursue fertility preservation, please read “Reading Between the Lines of Cancer and Fertility: A Providers Story,” by Leonard Sender, MD in Oncofertility: Ethical, Legal, Social and Medical Perspectives.