Hi @linda87..
Lots of questions which are normal and a big part of our grief as young survivors. Very very normal to focus on survival.
Can you have biological children?
The short answer is yes probably .. Id recommend jumping on the FB group Babies After Breast Cancer, heaps of success stories.
It’s a complicated situation and depends on multiple things:
- It’s possible that chemo could make you menopausal... but it probably won’t. Are you on Zoladex during chemotherapy? It’s a needle to suppress your ovaries which is supposed to keep your fertility safer. If not, ask your oncologist why at the next appt.
If you are menopausal after chemo that makes having a baby harder.
- Having a pregnancy depends on the length of your treatment which depends on the type of BC you have. Sometimes triple negative patients need to go on oral chemo after the IV stuff is finished if it didn’t kill all the cancer and you wouldn’t be able to have a baby whilst you’re taking that for example, but once it’s finished you could.
For hormone positive BC there is 5-10 years of oral medicines called “hormone therapy” recommended (tamoxifen, Letrozole, anastrazole and exemestane are their names). You need to come off these to have a baby. The timeframe to when it is safe to do this is unclear and currently being studied, most oncologists recommended doing at least 3 years then coming off. That will put you at 37/38. This is the reason breast cancer survivors are the group of cancer survivors least likely to have children, as our treatment goes on for a long time and their fertile window becomes shorter and shorter.
If having a baby is something you want, most oncologists will support it. There was a lot of old school thinking that no BC survivors should have children, but particularly hormone positive patients, as the hormones that feed the cancer are raised during pregnancy. The current available evidence is that this is not true and pregnancy does not cause an increase in recurrence or mortality.
Adoption is very very difficult in Australia…
Sex and life after cancer in general is different. The hormone therapy medicines can impact sex life, I’m not going to lie about that! But their benefits are HUGE and they really do extend the lives of hormone positive patients.
I was very focused on survival as well for the first year but I am coming up to year 3 since I was diagnosed and I focus on living my life now :) I am happy and healthy. Will I have children? Hard to say… is there a void?? Yes and no…
I have probably overwhelmed you !!
I should mention a friend of mine was diagnosed a week before me with triple negative BC, she is 8 months pregnant with her first at 32!!! And all she has ever wanted to be is a Mum.
Take care xx
