onkommon.com
Supportive
Fertility preservation
A decision with a deadline, and one that is routinely never raised at all.
Delivered at a partner unit
What it is
Chemotherapy, pelvic radiation and some surgery can permanently reduce or end fertility. Sperm banking, egg or embryo freezing, ovarian tissue preservation and ovarian transposition can preserve the option, but almost all of them have to happen before treatment starts.
In Indian practice this conversation is frequently skipped, particularly for young women and for unmarried patients. We raise it as a standing item, in writing, for every patient of reproductive age.
When it is used
- Any patient of reproductive age facing chemotherapy or pelvic radiation
- Before pelvic or testicular surgery
- Paediatric and adolescent cancer
- Before transplant conditioning
How the decision is made
- How much delay preservation would add, and whether the disease permits that delay.
- Which method fits your situation, your timeline and your circumstances.
- What it costs, and what happens to stored material afterwards.
Counselled and coordinated here; the procedures at a partner reproductive medicine unit.
Who does what
What we handle, and what happens elsewhere
KPCIRC handles
- The conversation itself, raised without you having to ask
- A written risk estimate for your specific regimen
- Urgent coordination with a reproductive medicine unit, usually within days
- Documentation of the decision either way, including declining
Performed and billed elsewhere
- Sperm, egg, embryo or tissue storage
- Hormonal stimulation and retrieval
- The window is short. If nobody has raised fertility with you and treatment is being planned, ask before the first cycle.
Questions to ask your own doctor
Take these with you. They work whether or not you are treated here.
- Will this treatment affect my fertility, and by how much?
- How much delay would preservation add?
- What are my options and what do they cost?
- What if I am not sure yet?
Support that goes with it
Where this is used
Cancers this commonly forms part of
Breast cancer
Including hormone-receptor positive, HER2-positive and triple-negative disease
Leukaemia
Acute and chronic leukaemias. ALL, AML, CLL, CML
Lymphoma
Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Cervical cancer
Cancer of the cervix
Ovarian cancer
Epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube and primary peritoneal cancer
Sarcoma & bone tumours
Soft-tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, GIST
Childhood cancer
Cancers in children and adolescents
Not sure this is the right option for you?
That is exactly what a second opinion is for. Bring what you have, we will tell you what is missing and what the alternatives actually are, in writing.