A dream coming true for cancer patients

Banjara Hills: Fertility preservation is the process of saving or protecting eggs, sperm, or reproductive tissue so that a person can use them to have biological children in the future. It is the effort to help cancer patients retain their fertility, or ability to procreate.

The effect of cancer therapy might be temporary or permanent and the degree of harm it does to your fertility depends on the type and stage of cancer treatment, age and various modes of treatment: Chemotherapy: It is known that there are certain drugs like alkylating agents or cisplatin which affects the fertility of the patients more so in older women; Radiation: It can be more damaging to fertility than chemotherapy, depending on the location and size of the radiation field and the dose given. For example, high doses of radiation can destroy some or all of the eggs in the ovaries; and, Surgery: Fertility can be harmed by the surgical removal of the testicles, uterus or ovaries.

Talking to the media, Dr Durga G Rao, founder of Oasis Fertility, stated that över a period of last few years they saw a number of patients secondary to cancer diagnosis being referred to them for fertility solutions. Cancer and some autoimmune and idiopathic conditions are associated with a high risk of the male or female patient losing their fertility.

She added that unlike in the past because of advances in cancer care, cancer patients can survive and have a good quality of treatment post cancer care. But they are deprived of child-bearing capacity due to damage to their fertility system from the cancer treatments of chemotherapy or radiation. Such patients if they are aware can preserve their sperms or embryo oocytes, prior to the cancer treatment and can become parents after they recover fully from cancer, using the preserved sperms or embryo oocytes. "Of late more and more career-oriented parents are preferring to postpone parenthood and such couples can preserve their sperms and embryo oocytes when they are young and become pregnant when they consider becoming parents. This is called Social Freezing," said the founder of Oasis Fertility.

Adding to this Dr Krishna Chaitanya, Scientific Head and Clinical Embryologist, said: "Through Fertility preservation, the sperms and embryo oocytes can be preserved for as long as 20 to 25 years. There was case in London, where the pregnancy was taken up after 22 years, and the baby born from this continues to be hale and healthy. Babies born from this are devoid of any deformity, the preservation is safe and the option is inexpensive, he added.