Other cancer treatments
Sometimes treating cancer can involve other treatments.
• Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) can involve using chemotherapy, radiotherapy and antibody treatments followed by blood and bone marrow stem cell infusions.
• Cellular therapies (such as CAR T-cells) are often combined with chemotherapy.
Most patients receiving BMT will have received chemotherapy and other treatments in the past, and fertility will have already been considered, but some patients will receive BMT as their first intensive treatment for their cancer.
These combined treatments can affect a woman’s fertility. If fertility is affected by these treatments it is often permanent and means that you will not be able to become pregnant in the future.
You will need to have a pregnancy test before you begin these treatments and will be advised not to get pregnant whilst the treatments are in progress.
The following questions may help you talk with your cancer care team about the impact of your planned cancer treatment on your future fertility.
- How might my planned cancer treatment affect my fertility in the future?
- Is there a chance that my cancer treatment will affect any part of my reproductive system (for example, womb, ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix)?
- Are the effects of my cancer treatment on my fertility likely to be temporary or permanent?
- How might my age, or other factors related to me, affect cancer related fertility?
- When should I discuss fertility preservation and who can I talk with about this?
Cancer treatments can affect fertility by:
- Damaging or lowering the number of eggs stored in the ovaries.
- Damaging a part of the body that controls the fertility hormones.
- Removing or damaging a part of the female reproductive system.
The ways in which cancer treatments affect fertility depends upon the type of cancer and the treatment you may have.
Not all women that have cancer treatment will have a fertility problem in the future.
