Preserving Fertility through Cancer treatment.

[summerluvr]

I am 32 and was recently diagnosed with Myeloma (blood cancer).  I am going to undergo a stem cell transplant in a few months.  My Oncologist referred me to a specialist for fertility preservation.  I though he would recommend drugs, but he said the best chance in my future is to freeze embryos for later.  I understand chemo causes infertility, but hadn't realized the chance of early menopause from chemo is so great.  I am supposed to start this menstrual cycle to harvest eggs.  How many would I expect to be able to get?  And what is the situation like post chemo for implantation? Is it generally successful?  I dont' have kids, but had one pregnancy 10 years ago, and I have had some functional cysts in the past.

[summerluvr]

My retrieval was Friday.  They retrieved 29 follicles,(!) and 10 were fertilized.  I have OHSS now, and feel quite terrible.  At The last ultrasound on Monday the fluid was only 500CC's in my abdomen, so it had gone down some,  but it is still quite bloated and my ovaries enlarged.  I feel very dizzy and sick (vomitting) and hope I will feel better soon.  The IVF turned out to be quite involved and I felt mostly unwell through the whole thing.  I'm glad it's over and we had a good result because I don't think I could handle this again (Worse then Chemo!).  I go back tomorrow for another untrasounds and they may drain the fluid.

[Kricket212]

20 folliciles is awesome. It sounds like you might get a good amount of eggs.
I know someone that also had cancer & her embryos were frozen.  When she was ready to have kids, her sister-in-law acted as a surrogate & they had twins.

Best Wishes to you & stay strong!!

[summerluvr]

My doctor decided to do the "short cycle" with me.  I went today for my 4th day check and there are 20 follicles!  Lets hope things keep going smoothly!  

[summerluvr]

Thanks for the detailed answer!  My Dr. is a women, and maybe she is 40?  so pretty young and forward thinking.  I think younger doctors are more ready to look past their own specialtly and refer you so you recieve the best care. The fertility centre also gives cancer patients a break on the fee so we pay most cost (about 50%) and my drug plan covers the drugs so I am very thankful.  

This diagnosis has forced my partner and I to think long term!  When the fertility doc recomended IVF we were at first a bit shocked!  We thought we were there to hear about birth control or drugs through the treatment, I had no idea chemo caused periods to stop. and then if  we were to wait 5 years to try naturally like they recomend post treatment I would be 37.  So as the dr. said 32 year old embryos stand a much better chance then 37 post chemo

Lets hope we get 20  :) If this cycle doesn't work we have maybe one more chance to try before I move to my stage of treatment.  We want to have options for future when my treatment is done. I have never heard of embryo adoption.  That is a good idea, my partner might be into that.

[redBlues]

I just read on the newspaper a dutch woman had a bone cancer and before she started her treatment she requested her ovarias to be removed and frozen.they did that...

she had her cancer treatment and then the doctors transfered her ovarias back and since then she had two kids..

pls search on the net to read the whole story and i really wish the best

good luck

[Elaine Brown, MD]

Hi!
You have some very good doctors.  Many do not even think of fertility under similar circumstances.  AND at present, your RE is correct, the best chance is with freezing embryos--egg freezing and ovarian tissue harvesting are still very experimental.
If you have a good response to the meds, you may get as many as 20 embryos.  The number is likely to be less than that though.
Yes, success rates are very good for implantation of embryos frozen before chemo--I will guestimate that upwards of 20% of implanted embryos become babies--but that depends on a million different parameters.
If you have embryos left over, there is embryo adoption--a wonderful option for embryos that are not going to be used for any reason.
You must be thinking of millions of different things at this point.

I hope you have lots of embryos; I hope your chemotherapy is as mild as possible;
I hope after chemo you have lots of children and grandchildren to tell your story to!
Good luck!
Dr B