Fertility

meghedge01

Hi everyone. I was just diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma. I am still in the staging process. My biggest concern right now is fertility after chemo. I am 27yr old female. I do not have any children but it is something I want more than anything. And its not just having a child, because I know I can adopt, but I really want to experience pregnancy. Can anyone offer any advice or testimonials about your own exerperience with fertility after treatment? Thanks.

romilda79

hello meg. I had NHL back 2007 I was also 27.i had 6 rounds of chemo.And then that's it.I'm 31 now. My doctor told me that 3-5 years in waiting to have a baby.because my cells are still rebuilding.And i'm having regular ct scans. I haven't asked him if what sorts of tests will i go through.And chemo had side effects i had scoliosis in my lumbar so my uterus was retroverted.I saw it in my ct. ...Maybe if my body is ready i'll visit a fertility clinic.

cathyp

children after hodgkins
In 1989, I was newly married and dx'd w/HD. To spare my fertility , I received radiation theraphy only. In 1993, I gave birth to my daughter, but was dx'd w/a recurrence 6 mos later. By that time the chemo changed from MOPP to ABVD. I had the ABVD and gave birth to our 2nd daughter 2 years later! They are now 14 and 17.
I wish you the same amount of hope and joy that I have had, my daughters are truely miracles!
Cathy

m-star

cathyp said:

children after hodgkins
In 1989, I was newly married and dx'd w/HD. To spare my fertility , I received radiation theraphy only. In 1993, I gave birth to my daughter, but was dx'd w/a recurrence 6 mos later. By that time the chemo changed from MOPP to ABVD. I had the ABVD and gave birth to our 2nd daughter 2 years later! They are now 14 and 17.
I wish you the same amount of hope and joy that I have had, my daughters are truely miracles!
Cathy

hi
i had chemo and mantle
hi
i had chemo and mantle radiation in 1990/91 for HL and was told that due to the chemo,i would be "infertile" and if i had been a man getting this treatment,i would be "sterile".

At age 17 this was soul destroying as my boyfriend and i had been together 2 years and knew we would be together always. I was told under no circumstances was i to try and concieve in the next 2 years because of the chemo.

I was so upset, we (stupidly) didn't use contraception from the age of 19! We bought our own house in 1996 and after trying "properly" to concieve,we found out we were expacting a baby!!!

She is our miracle child as far as im concerned and will be 13 next month!

I would really ask your onc about your fertility. If need be,im pretty sure you can have your eggs harvested and frozen?It may be worth looking into.Then you have something to fall back on in the event of not being able to concieve naturally. I know how you feel about wanting to experience pregnancy as thats how i felt too.

meghedge01

m-star said:

hi
i had chemo and mantle
hi
i had chemo and mantle radiation in 1990/91 for HL and was told that due to the chemo,i would be "infertile" and if i had been a man getting this treatment,i would be "sterile".

At age 17 this was soul destroying as my boyfriend and i had been together 2 years and knew we would be together always. I was told under no circumstances was i to try and concieve in the next 2 years because of the chemo.

I was so upset, we (stupidly) didn't use contraception from the age of 19! We bought our own house in 1996 and after trying "properly" to concieve,we found out we were expacting a baby!!!

She is our miracle child as far as im concerned and will be 13 next month!

I would really ask your onc about your fertility. If need be,im pretty sure you can have your eggs harvested and frozen?It may be worth looking into.Then you have something to fall back on in the event of not being able to concieve naturally. I know how you feel about wanting to experience pregnancy as thats how i felt too.

I know I will have ABVD
I know I will have ABVD chemo and then radiation. I've already seen a fertility doc about my options. Option 1 - take a shot called Lupron that puts me in a state of menopause. Its only a protective measure and is not 100%. Option 2 - harvest and freeze eggs. This process takes about a month and I cannot start treatment until its done. There aren't really any stats as to how likely it is that chemo will make person infertile/sterile. I just hate to think that if I don't have eggs harvested, I'm risking the possibility to have kids.

alpeaceh

meghedge01 said:

I know I will have ABVD
I know I will have ABVD chemo and then radiation. I've already seen a fertility doc about my options. Option 1 - take a shot called Lupron that puts me in a state of menopause. Its only a protective measure and is not 100%. Option 2 - harvest and freeze eggs. This process takes about a month and I cannot start treatment until its done. There aren't really any stats as to how likely it is that chemo will make person infertile/sterile. I just hate to think that if I don't have eggs harvested, I'm risking the possibility to have kids.

Fertility
I was 25 when I had radiation for HD, then chemo less than a year later. I opted to harvest my eggs before I started the chemo. Back then, 1995, they could not freeze just the eggs...it had to be embryos (good thing my boyfriend & I had been together for over a year). And, because of my situation, my insurance paid for the majority of it!! I think you can freeze just the eggs now. I had several tests after afterwards to make sure that I was still fertile, and I was. He & I did break up after 4 years together. When I did get married at 32, I tried for a year to get pregnant. I went to the fertilty doc and they said that my egg quality had decreased. I was given less than 10% chance of getting pregnant. Unfortunetely, I was not blessed....I had waited too long. As for the embryos, my boyfriend only agreed to keep them frozen for as long as we were together. I would recommend freezing your eggs if your doc says the chemo can wait a month.

Good luck to you Meg!

Andrea