What should women with cancer know about fertility planning before beginning treatment? Kristin Smith, a fertility preservation patient navigator, breaks down the surprising truth about timing, explains why fertility preservation is more possible than many realize, and empowers patients to advocate for themselves even in these crucial situations.
Kristin Smith is a Fertility Preservation Patient Navigator at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
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Transcript
Jamie Forward:
So, Kristin, what’s one thing that you wish every woman knew about fertility preservation before starting cancer treatment?
Kristin Smith:
I really wish that everyone knew that more often than not, there’s time to get this done. And I’ve been doing this now for 15 years. So, I’ve been here for a long time, and I’ve seen it go from needing four weeks to do an egg or an embryo freezing cycle to two. And typically, that two-week delay is not a huge delay when it comes to cancer treatment because you can also be doing all the scans that you need. All the workup that you need. And so, really when it comes down to having time to do fertility preservation, across the board, there is almost always time.
And I think we don’t always realize that. Especially sometimes in these smaller cancer communities where maybe that oncologist is only seeing a couple young adults a year. It feels like a massive crisis, and we’ve got tox start tomorrow. But in most cases, we do have time to do this, and we do have time to even explore the options so that patients really feel like they were given all the information that they should be given at the time of their diagnosis. And I think I would really encourage everyone to very much so ask about fertility preservation if it’s not been brought up.
I think that we don’t always know or understand our own fertility. And so, if we don’t have this basic knowledge of reproductive health, I think a lot of times, we don’t really understand how treatments can negatively impact fertility.
And so, as women, because we’re born with a set amount of eggs, each egg sitting in a follicle, we have a finite amount. And once it’s gone, it’s gone. And so, cancer treatments we know can really decrease that number of eggs that we have left in the ovaries. And if sometimes this fertility preservation conversation isn’t addressed prior to treatment, we lose out on that opportunity. But I think it’s also really important if you didn’t have that conversation prior to treatment, to ask about it after treatment.
Because we do know now in survivorship, we’re also seeing windows of fertility. And even if you’re not ready to build a family right away, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see a reproductive endocrinologist. Understand your current fertility at that time. Whether or not doing fertility preservation in survivorship is an option. And if it is, again, what resources are available to you for that if you don’t have coverage and things like that.