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While the relationship between cancer treatments and patient infertility does
cause some reason for concern for many cancer patients, there are ways for
cancer patients to protect their ability to have children once the course of
cancer treatment is over. Oftentimes, women who will be undergoing cancer
treatment will have some of their eggs removed and stored for use after
treatment has been completed. The woman will undergo a course of hormone therapy
in order to stimulate her production of eggs. The eggs (usually six or more)
will then be surgically removed and then stored. The entire process usually
takes approximately a month. Because freezing unfertilized eggs is a new process
and is not always successful, many women opt to have their eggs fertilized
before being stored to ensure a higher chance of successful pregnancy once the
patient is ready to carry a child.
Men can also take measures to protect their ability to have children after undergoing cancer treatment. Fertility clinics can collect and store a man¡¯s semen for future use, enabling men who have become infertile to still experience fatherhood. It is also possible to use testicular tissue to retrieve sperm for use at a later time. Once the sperm is stored, it can later be retrieved and used to fertilize an egg.
Even though both eggs and sperm can be stored and used at later dates, there is no guarantee that using stored sperm and/or eggs will result in a viable pregnancy. Because of this, many patients also choose to look into the egg and sperm donor options. If, for some reason, the eggs or sperm that were stored prior to cancer treatment did not support a viable pregnancy, sperm or egg donations may be a way for a recovered cancer patient to have a child without turning to adoption alternatives.
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