Fertility preservation in breast cancer patients

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women and its incidence increases with age, with the majority of patients being diagnosed after menopause. However, in 15-25% of cases, it can occur premenopausally and about 7% of women are under 40 years of age. Therefore, a significant proportion of young women are diagnosed with breast cancer during their reproductive life.

Most cancers require chemotherapy and/or hormone therapy, which contribute to a reduction in women’s reproductive function (always depending on age). These treatments which are effective on the one hand are also time-consuming, which in turn leads to an increasing number of young women surviving breast cancer before fulfilling their reproductive desires. Add to all this the current trend of delaying pregnancy (after the age of 35), and the importance of counselling and fertility preservation at the time of diagnosis (rather than later) of breast cancer in young women is evident. The good news is that a wide range of fertility preservation techniques have been developed, the main one being cryopreservation (freezing) of eggs and embryos. Early counselling and referral of these patients to fertility specialists are fundamental factors in order to maximise the chances of pregnancy after cancer treatment.

Prof. Dr. Panagiotis Drakopoulos

Gynaecologist , Fertility Specialist