ever have while we’re still in the womb. We’re born with about a million of them and  

that number only goes down from there. We’ll release about 300-500 of those eggs  

throughout our lifetime, but there are lots of  things that can make that number even smaller. 

One of those things is cancer.

Now, cancer is a really scary thing and it’s

an overwhelming wave of tests, diagnoses, and  treatment options. And then there’s the cherry  

on top of all the extra stuff there is to worry  about...stuff like fertility.

-What happens is that the chemotherapy

can cause the eggs that are  currently active in the ovary to undergo basically  

cell death. And that can lower a person's egg  supply more quickly than what happens naturally. 

-The word chemotherapy actually means  any drug used to treat any kind of illness,  

but in the context of cancer treatment, these are  drugs that are targeted at eradicating cancer cells. 

And these drugs may not only affect active eggs  but can also degrade the backup pool of eggs

that’s stored in the ovaries for future ovulation. And chemo isn’t the only kind of  

cancer treatment—the two other most  common are radiation and surgery . 

Then there’s options like immunotherapy,  hormone therapy, bone marrow transplants,  

and lots of other emerging medicines. Radiation in the pelvic area can also  

directly harm your eggs.

And any destruction of hormone-regulating parts  of the body, like the ovaries, can trigger some  

pretty drastic changes, including the onset  of menopause-like symptoms before age 40. 

But the effect of any of these treatments  really depends on the kind of cancer  

you may be dealing with. Which in Betty’s  case, it was acute lymphocytic leukemia. 

-My oncologist told me if I would  have not been diagnosed for two more weeks,  

I probably would have not survived.  That's how quickly it was escalating. 

-Every kind of cancer is relatively unique, so  treatment is going to be tailored to   

the stage and type of the disease and the  age and general condition of the patient. 

So after hearing all of that, it’s  understandable that fertility planning  

is a pretty actually big part of someone’s cancer journey.   

My oncologist explained that the chemo would

potentially put me in early menopause or give  me issues conceiving. So he was very clear  

on explaining to me what could happen and the possibility  

of me having a child.   

-Some of you may already know this,

but in my last relationship, my long-term partner  was diagnosed with a really aggressive lymphoma. 

Everything I just said about ovaries is also  true for male reproductive equipment. Chemotherapy  

can damage sperm and sperm-generating  parts of the body, so before treatment,  

he needed to consult a fertility specialist. For those with testes, that means deciding  

whether you want to collect and store a  sperm sample. But for those with ovaries,  

it’s a little more complicated.   

-There are a variety of options.

The most commonly used option is egg freezing,  where a patient undergoes an ovarian stimulation  

cycle to try to get all the eggs that are present  in the ovaries for that month to grow together. 

We would then do a procedure that's under sedation  to remove those eggs from your ovaries. Just using  

a needle that goes through the vagina takes about  15 to 20 minutes and you go home the same day.  

And we can freeze all of the mature eggs that we  get to use in the future either to carry yourself  

or to be carried by someone else.

-And that whole process takes time,  

like at least a couple of weeks.

An even more recent option  is ovarian transposition.  

This is where the ovaries are actually  surgically moved higher up into the abdomen  

so they’re out of harm’s way if radiation is being  aimed in that direction.

The ovaries are moveable! Who knew, huh? Not me. 

But sometimes, things actually progress too fast. Some  patients, like Betty, don’t  

have the luxury of time to explore all options  before they urgently need to start treatment

for their cancer.

-Unfortunately, due to the rate of the cancer  growing and how fast I was deteriorating,  

I was given the option to freeze my eggs,   but it would postpone treatment for two months  

which would make my prognosis very bleak. So me and my ex husband made a decision  

to go ahead with treatment  because we already had our newborn. 

-It’s a tough decision to face. Luckily, there are  some exciting advancements on the horizon, like... 

artificial ovaries. This is where the patient’s  own ovarian tissue is removed and frozen,

a technique known as cryopreservation.

It can then be used to create a scaffold, seeded with their own ovarian follicles.

And all of this can then be prompted to  function as an ovary and produce eggs  

outside of the body. We’re livin’ in the future, dude! 

It can then be transplanted back into the  body, where the hope is that it could resume  

function as a normal ovary again. This research is still in its early  

stages and has only been trialed in lab  animals so far, but it’s a promising future option. 

Other experimental ovarian  cryopreservation techniques have  

been tried successfully have resulted in live human births.

Plus, something that’s just as  important as these advancements  

is who exactly will have access to them. -A patient has to be aware that these services  

exist, if they don't ask for it themselves. And  so empowering our cancer specialists to know about  

the ways that we can assist patients to preserve  their fertility, and just kind of spreading the  

knowledge amongst the practitioners. -And we can’t forget that all of this  

costs money. -I wish I could say that fertility preservation  

was free. But there's also some great  societies out there that provide grants for  

patients to help offset some of the costs. And so  we try to meet patients, you know, kind of where  

they are to get them the care that they want.   

And depending on the kind of cancer,

and the kind of treatment, experts recommend  that cancer survivors wait anywhere from six months to  

five years before trying for kids. The waiting period reduces the chance of a  

cancer recurrence and gives the patient adequate  time to recover, both physically and otherwise. 

There are lots of folks who complete  cancer treatment and go on to have  

low-risk pregnancies and  healthy children. Like Betty,  

who got pregnant shortly after getting the green  light from her doctor without any fertility help. 

-I never expected to get cancer as a new  mom at 30. I never expected to have a  

second child after I was told that I possibly  could not have another child. So stay positive,  

do your research, figure out what you want for  your life and your future and where you stand  

and always always advocate for yourself because  no one else is going to do it better than you. 

-If you or someone you know is looking  for support when dealing with blood  

cancer, check out The Leukemia and Lymphoma  Society. They provide patients with free,  

one-on-one support and opportunities to speak  with highly trained oncology professionals.  

To learn more about them, check out the  resources we’ve left in the description below. 

Thanks so much for watching Body Language, if  you want more topics from the series,  

check out season one here. If there are any other health topics

you think we should cover, let us know in the comments below.

I really hope you learned something new in this video and I'll see you next time.