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Fertility
Being diagnosed with breast cancer in your 20’s, 30’s
and even early 40’s also leaves you facing fertility issues. More and
more women are not starting their families today until much later
because of careers. In my situation, I was blessed to have had my son
prior to my diagnosis.
After the initial shock of being told I had breast
cancer and as we got into the details about treatment options, I
questioned whether or not I could or should have more kids after
breast cancer. I asked about storing eggs but my doctor told me it
was not an option for me. When I asked my doctor about getting
pregnant again, I was told that I was done having children because my
cancer was hormone positive. When I responded that I simply could not
accept that answer, I was told to wait at least five years. Here is
my thinking: pregnancy did not cause my cancer. Yes, it helped the
cancer to grow which I think happens in many cases and may be why so
many breast cancers are discovered during or shortly after a
pregnancy. But I don’t believe that getting pregnant automatically
causes a reoccurrence. In fact, one of my doctors informed me of a
study done at MD Anderson that followed all of their young breast
cancer patients. Ironically, the ones that went on to have
pregnancies had a higher survival rate than those that did not have
children afterwards.
Click here to view this study.
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