PUNE: A 30-year old woman, a breast cancer survivor from the city, was able to conceive and give birth to a child. This was made possible as she had vitrified her eggs before her cancer treatment started. The eggs were not exposed to chemotherapy.
Fertility experts from the city suggest that cancer patients can use cryopreservation or vitrifying or freezing of eggs or preserving embryo so that women can conceive after the treatment is over. Chemotherapy, in many cases, is found to induce early menopause in women and infertility in patients.
In case of male patients as well, they can go for sperm freezing before starting with chemotherapy.
The 30-year-old woman was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 17 years. Sharing her story, she said that she was shattered to learn that she was diagnosed with breast cancer at such an early age.
She went to an oncologist, who after examining and investigating her, directed her for a surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She was further counselled about the difficulty in future conception, which is a known side effect of the treatment.
Speaking to Sakal Times, Dr Nameeta Mokashi Bhalerao from Nova IVI Fertility said that the young girl came to them for consulting.
“A scan to assess her ovary and uterus was done. Considering the need to quickly resort to cancer treatment, after proper consent, she underwent an ‘In Vitro Fertilisation’ (IVF) process, wherein her ovarian follicles were stimulated with low dose hormonal injections. The eggs that were then retrieved in good numbers were all frozen by a technique of oocyte cryopreservation - a very promising breakthrough modality offering a positive hope of conceiving through one’s own gametes rather than that of a donor,” said Dr Bhalerao. She added that once her breast treatment was satisfactorily done, she got married.
“She used the prior vitrified eggs to be used with sperms. With her own eggs, a healthy embryo was formed and transferred into her uterus. She conceived and now is a happy mother to a young child,” said Dr Bhalerao. Many patients do not know about this process, she said.
“Awareness about the process is very low. With cancer now been detected among younger generations, this technique can help many to have children in a natural way,” added Dr Bhalerao.
MEDICAL BOON
Fertility experts from the city suggest that cancer patients can use cryopreservation or vitrifying or freezing of eggs or preserving embryo so that women can conceive after the treatment is over.
