A breast cancer diagnosis can unfortunately come at any age. For younger women in particular, who may be considering starting a family or having more children, this can also raise concerns about how their treatment could affect their reproductive health. Luckily, medicine is advancing and giving women diagnosed with breast cancer more options about the future of their reproductive health. Some women may have the option to “freeze their eggs” before starting cancer treatments. This allows eggs to be safely “harvested” and frozen for later use.
Treatments like chemotherapy can also bring on earlier menopause. In some cases, this effect is temporary and is reversed once treatment is over. This is also known as chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea. The risk of amenorrhea after taxane chemotherapy like Taxol or Taxetere, or Anthracycline chemotherapies like Adriamycin (chemical name: doxorubicin), AKA the Red Devil, account for 21-71% in young women, and 49-100% in those over 40 years of age according to Pourali et al.
"Studies show that getting pregnant does not seem to make cancer return. Some health care providers advise breast cancer survivors to wait 2 years before trying to get pregnant. There is a link between some hormones that rise during pregnancy and the growth of breast cancer cells. But there is no scientific proof that cancer risk increases if a woman gets pregnant within 2 years of completing treatment" (Cancer.net).
If you've been diagnosed with breast cancer and are considering your options for family planning, here are some questions to keep on hand when speaking with your cancer care oncology team:
Will my cancer treatment plan affect my ability to have children?
Are there ways to preserve my fertility before I start treatment?
Will my treatment plan cause problems during pregnancy, labor, or delivery?
How long should I wait before trying to have a child?
How will trying to have a child affect my follow-up care plan?
Will trying to have a child increase my risk of recurrence? (Source: Cancer.net)
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Rayna found the lump in her breast two months after having her daughter. She shared that she experienced early menopause at age 31. Two years after treatment, her period still hasn't come back. "My daughter is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and if I can’t have another child, I’m okay with that." Read More.
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Content Across The Web
Some breast cancer treatments can bring on menopause earlier than it naturally would occur. This is known as medical menopause, which can be caused by chemotherapy, or surgical menopause when the ovaries are surgically removed. Surgical menopause is a permanent change, but when caused by chemotherapy, this is sometimes a temporary state during the treatment which resolves once chemotherapy has been completed. “With medical and surgical menopause, the ovaries stop functioning and hormone levels fall right away (surgical menopause) or over a period of weeks or months (medical menopause) — not over a few years, as usually happens with natural menopause. The suddenness of surgical menopause can cause intense symptoms for younger premenopausal women.” Some chemotherapy drugs are more likely than others to cause medical menopause. Read on for more details. Read More.