A cancer diagnosis can be daunting to put it mildly, but add to that potentially sterilizing chemotherapy and radiation regimes and a young cancer patient faces a future of uncertainty in terms of their fertility. Fertility preservation is an option which should be discussed with both men and women, but it can be particularly challenging with young women due to the fact that it can be time intensive (not all cancer patients have the time to undergo IVF) and because mature gametes are difficult to access. A new article by Oncofertility Consortium members, Francesca E Duncan, PhD, Jennifer K Jozefik, BS, Alison M Kim, PhD, Jennifer Hirshfeld- Cytron, MD, and Teresa K Woodruff, PhD entitled, The Gynecologist Has a Unique Role in Providing Oncofertility Care to Young Cancer Patients, argues that gynecologists are in a unique position as primary care providers (PCP) for many young women, to provide cancer patients with fertility preservation options and information pre and post-cancer treatment.
The Gynecologist Has a Unique Role in Providing Oncofertility Care to Young Cancer Patients focuses on young women and serves to provide gynecologists with a general understanding of how cancer therapies can affect fertility, what fertility preservation options are available to adolescent girls and young women, and how to access reproductive function pre and post cancer. For example, the authors discuss the most common forms of fertility preservation techniques including egg banking, embryo banking and ovarian tissue cryopreservation. Every cancer patient has different options based on unique intrinsic factors including diagnosis, treatment course, age, ovarian reserve prior to treatment or anit-mullerian hormone (AMH) levels, and timing. It’s also important to note that fertility preservation options are constantly expanding as research translates to clinical practice.
The authors state that gynecologists have an opportunity to be an essential part of the oncofertility team because they interact more regularly with their patients throughout their cancer treatment and beyond. As we know, oncofertility is a multidisciplinary field requiring a team-based approach. The authors assert that, “gynecologists need to educate their patients about oncofertility because despite measures to introduce oncofertility into oncology settings, patients frequently report that they are not provided with ample information concerning fertility preservation,” from their oncologists. Therefore, the gynecologist acting as a PCP is in the most ideal role to communicate this important information.
To learn more about fertility-impairing cancer treatments, fertility preservation options, and the gynecologist’s role in oncofertility, click here to read, The Gynecologist Has a Unique Role in Providing Oncofertility Care to Young Cancer Patients.