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Breast Cancer is the most common cancer found in women. One in four Indian women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy are at risk of infertility. These treatments can damage the ovaries, which can sometimes lead to immediate or delayed infertility.
Such patients may be offered the option of preserving their fertility through various techniques, including ovarian cortex freezing and embryo freezing. Genetic testing can help identify which patients are at higher risk of breast cancer. Cryopreservation is also a method of helping fertility preservation for some women with cancer.
What is fertility preservation?
Fertility preservation is the process of preserving a patient’s fertile eggs, ovarian tissue, or sperm before starting cancer treatment. In medical terminology this is called oncofertility, and after this the patient is able to reproduce after defeating the cancer.
In the process of oncofertility, eggs, sperm, ovarian or testicular tissue are preserved so that the patient can use them to have children in the future. Fertility preservation is becoming increasingly important in improving the quality of life of cancer survivors. However, women who have cancer may not feel comfortable talking about fertility problems.
Patients may not be aware of their options for preserving fertility, as their main focus is on cancer diagnosis and treatment.
What is cryopreservation
In this method, the eggs retrieved from the ovaries are frozen without being fertilized, and stored for later use. Frozen eggs can be retrieved, fertilized with sperm in the lab, and then implanted in a womb. This process is called invitro fertilization. There are treatment options available for breast cancer patients to preserve their ability to conceive.
How can breast cancer patients protect their fertility?
Freezing 1 egg :
This process is called oocyte cryopreservation. In this process, the woman’s eggs are harvested after the IVF procedure is done. In this, the ovaries are stimulated by drugs called gonadotropins and then the process of ovum retrieval is done.
The oocytes or eggs thus obtained are frozen. It is stored in women of reproductive age to preserve fertility.
Embryo Freezing:
This involves an IVF cycle, in which the woman’s harvested eggs are fertilized by the man’s sperm, and the embryos thus formed are cryopreserved.
3 Ovarian Cortex Freezing :
Ovarian cortex freezing is an experimental and prospective method of fertility preservation in which the part of the cortex in the ovaries that contains the eggs is cryopreserved. It is increasingly being used to preserve fertility in young cancer patients in whom freezing eggs or embryos is not a practical option.
4 Ovarian Suppression :
Very few people know about this method of fertility preservation. Ovarian suppression involves preventing the ovaries from maturing eggs with the help of hormones. The aim of this treatment is to stop the ovaries from working and to preserve the immature eggs so that they can be used after cancer treatment has been completed.
Experts suggest freezing the embryos or eggs, which is called cryopreservation. It aims to help preserve fertility for women with cancer. So don’t lose hope, rather consult your doctor and fertility specialist, who will give you the right advice regarding your treatment and chances of conceiving.
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