Female Childhood Cancer Survivors Still Have Good Chance Of Conceiving

Researchers have found that although women who survived cancer in their childhood have an increased risk of infertility, they still have a good chance of conceiving.

The study, published in The Lancet Oncology, revealed that around two-thirds of women who suffered from childhood cancer become pregnant.

The researchers say this is a pregnancy rate similar to that seen in non-cancer survivors who have received infertility treatment.

Researchers from Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, as well as Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, carried out a survey of participants in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCCS).

The study tracks people who were diagnosed with cancer under the age of 21 at over 26 US and Canadian institutions.

The study focused on women who were trying to get pregnant.

The researchers analyzed 3,531 women from the CCCS aged between 18 and 39 years who reported being sexually active at some point in their lives, as well as 1,366 of the women’s female siblings for comparison.

Researchers suggest that although women who survived childhood cancer are at increased risk of infertility, their odds of conceiving are still good.

The results showed that of 455 study participants who reported clinical infertility, 64% of them eventually became pregnant.

The results also revealed that in the youngest group of survivors and their siblings, who were under the age of 24, infertility was almost three times more common in the survivors than in their siblings.

But the results showed that this difference was less pronounced in women in their late 30s. The study authors say this may be because infertility is more common in all women in that age group and is not limited to cancer survivors.

Surprisingly, the study also revealed that although survivors were just as likely as their siblings to seek medical treatment for infertility, the siblings were twice as likely to be prescribed drugs for it.

Source Medical News Today