My child has been treated for cancer-does that mean he or she will be infertile?
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Your child’s cancer treatment does not guarantee that he or she will be infertile. There are several factors that determine the impact your child’s cancer treatment may have had on his or her fertility. Depending on the type of cancer, the type of cancer treatment, and your child’s age, his or her fertility may or may not have been affected.
In addition, fertility in children is very difficult to measure. There are no clear statistics available regarding the likelihood of fertility loss in each child if fertility preservation is not performed before cancer treatment.
After treatment, doctors can closely monitor hormone levels and determine whether girls have lost their menstrual period or if boys have developed azoospermia (no sperm production). Click on the link to the right for a list of questions to ask the doctor about potential effects of your child’s cancer or cancer treatment on their future fertility.
For children who have reduced fertility after cancer treatment, procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) are highly effective options for having children later in life. In the event that your child does become infertile, options such as IVF with donor eggs or sperm, gestational surrogacy, and adoption are also available. Click on the link to the right to learn about some of the fertility preservation options available to your son or daughter after they have completed treatment.