Egg Freezing » Chemo-radiation Therapy

Cancer Patient Freezes Eggs

eggfreezing — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:12:54 +0000

Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer Patient Freezes Eggs

Being told you have cancer can be one of the scariest diagnoses a patient will ever receive. Young patients that haven’t had the opportunity to start a family, may fear losing their ability to one day have children. Although chemotherapy and radiation can be life saving, they may also cause difficulties becoming pregnant when a patient wishes to start their family. We recently had the opportunity to work with a young woman diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma who would like to share her journey with you today.

Twenty-three year old Brie was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma three weeks before her first visit to West Coast Fertility Center. She wished to learn more about our egg freezing process and was interested in preserving her eggs prior to starting chemotherapy. Dr. Diaz shared our egg freezing thaw/survival rates and 52 healthy live births, two very important factors to investigate when you are considering freezing your eggs.

Cancer Patient Freezes Eggs

Since Brie was due to start her chemotherapy later in the month, she decided to proceed with her stimulation protocol immediately. During her frequent visits to our facility, she was truly a delightful patient and our staff developed a great deal of respect for this courageous young patient. She persevered through 14 days of injectable fertility medication with remarkable good humor and close attention to detail. Ultrasounds and blood tests were performed to assess her follicle development. During this period there was ongoing communication to and from her oncologist to coordinate and assure her cancer treatment was not compromised. On the day of her egg harvest, 13 eggs were retrieved and of these eggs 11 were mature enough to freeze. Although Brie has a long road ahead of her, she was able to start chemotherapy knowing her ability to one day have children may have been preserved.

We are pleased to offer our egg freezing services to patients who have unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer. West Coast Fertility Center helps by reducing some of the costs while working closely with Fertile Hope (affiliated with the Lance Armstrong Foundation), a non-profit organization that offers emotional support to cancer patients. Our industry partner, EMD Serono provides free medications to our patients. This helps make egg freezing more affordable to these patients whose medical treatments may pose a risk of infertility. To learn more about egg freezing please contact the West Coast Fertility Center patient care coordinator.

LA Times

eggfreezing — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:16:55 +0000

Study Finds Fertility Procedures Do Not Delay Cancer Treatment

LA Times Health. November 13, 2009 10:11 am.

A study published this week reassures women and their doctors that fertility procedures can be done in an orderly way that should not delay breast cancer treatment. The findings show the key to timely fertility procedures depends on all the parties involved — the patient, cancer surgeon, medical oncologist and reproductive specialists — working together and communicating effectively. Read more.

Fertility Preservation Talk

eggfreezing — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:17:01 +0000

Dr. Diaz Gives Talk on Fertility Preservation

"Fertility Preservation for Cancer Patients" was the topic of a presentation given by David Diaz M.D. to the OB/GYN Department at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, CA. The talk was intended to raise awareness among OB/GYN specialists about the options available to young patients facing the difficult decision of preserving their fertility before starting chemotherapy or radiation treatments. One such option is egg freezing, also known as cryopreservation, to store the eggs of young patient who may lose their fertility potential after anti-cancer therapy. The eggs can be frozen indefinitely until the survivor is ready to start her family.

Frozen Egg Bank, Inc., founded by Dr. Diaz, works closely with the patient’s personal physician and with the oncology specialist to recommend the options available to each patient. The team approach maximizes success for cancer treatment while giving hope of preserving a young patients fertility potential. This is especially important to young, unmarried patients who may not have a partner or a sperm donor needed to create embryos.