Fertility Preservation in Breast Cancer Patients Under Special Consideration of Ovarian Stimulation for Fertility Purposes

Importance of fertility preserving methodsA. Socio-demographic changes in societyIn the industrialized countries, two developmentshave been observed over the last few decades thathave shifted the focus of research and reproductivemedicine to maintaining fertility. With regard tosocial life, there is a trend of postponing therealization of the desire to have children to an everlater phase of life or a childbirth does not take placeat all due to existing biological limits. In Germany,for example, between ۱۹۹۳ and ۲۰۱۳, the age ofwomen at the birth of their first child rose fromaround ۲۵ to ۲۹.۳ years. It is well-known for a longperiod of time that women’s fertility decreasessteadily at the age of approximately ۳۰ years.However, the optimum fertility is around ۲۵ years.At the same time, there is an almost constant increasein life expectancy in cancer patients, especially inwomen with breast cancer. One reason for thisobservation is the progress made in oncologictherapy, which is reflected in improved long-termsurvival in cancer. However, these successes areaccompanied by a loss of fertility due to prematureovarian insufficiency, triggered by gonadotoxic sideeffects of chemotherapy and radiation. At the sametime, many women report that they still want to havechildren despite being diagnosed with cancer. Up toevery ۷ patient would even be willing to accept a lossin oncologic safety if she could still give birth to achild.

Keywords:

Breast Cancer