Impact of chemotherapy on fertility more specific

New data gives a better understanding of the impact of chemotherapy on women’s reproductive health. The latest researchers say their analysis of the age-specific, long-term effects of chemotherapy provides new insights that will help patients and clinicians make more informed decisions about reproductive options post-chemo. Options that might include egg harvesting and cryopreservation.

Previous studies have focused on amenorrhea, the absence of menstruation or ovulation after treatment, as the most significant reproductive side effect of chemo. In this analysis, the researchers focused on longer term, age-specific outcomes associated with chemotherapy, including infertility and early menopause.

“We found chemotherapy essentially narrows a woman’s reproductive window by causing a range of damage to the ovaries, even if her menses resume after chemotherapy,” said Mitchell Rosen, MD, senior author and assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. Many women are told that if their periods resume after chemo, then their fertility is unaffected.

“We are currently making recommendations on preserving fertility based on limited data. These new findings, which also take into account cancer type and age, hopefully will enable us to offer more strategic and personalized counseling,” said Rosen.

Researchers culled data from women asking about their reproductive history before and after cancer treatment, questions about ovarian failures (amenorrhea), early menopause and infertility.

“When counseling patients, focusing solely on short term outcomes like loss of menses may give women unrealistically low assessments of their risks, since they could experience infertility or early menopause years to decades after treatment,” said Joseph Letourneau, MD, the study’s lead author.

“Our analysis adds one more piece o the puzzle,” he said. “Doctors will continue to need to use their gestalt and understanding of a patient’s life to provide the best guidance.”

Source: Medical News Today, Cancer