Fertility Drugs

Breast and ovarian cancer survivors, especially those with, hormone-sensitive cancers, may worry about using ovarian stimulating hormones either during fertility preservation prior to cancer treatment or during survivorship. For fertility preservation purposes, embryo or egg banking are options for many young women. In this process, hormones are used to induce the ovaries to produce multiple eggs in one month (normally an ovary produces a single egg per month). Clinical hormonal stimulation protocols have been modified to work for women with hormone-sensitive cancers. The one study that looked at cancer recurrence rates for breast cancer survivors who underwent this procedure, found that these women did not have an increased risk for cancer recurrence compared to those who did not have ovarian stimulation.

Survivors of hormone-sensitive cancers may also discuss using this protocol with their fertility specialist. However, they may first wish to examine their ovarian reserve, the number of immature eggs in their ovaries, as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery for cancer treatment may have significantly reduced this number.