"You have breast cancer"

Hey Ness, thanks for reading my 'extremely long' post! You are always welcome to any help I can give you :)

Not sure if it's different state by state, but I am in SA and here once you are diagnosed with breast cancer and have to have chemo you automatically qualify for free IVF (it's covered by medicare). The only cost to me was the excess payment I have on my private health insurance (I chose to do it privately) for the 'day' procedure when they do the egg collection. You then get 5 years free egg storage at the facility also.

Just tell your surgical oncologist and especially your medical oncologist (the one that organises your chemo) that it's important to you and that you want to look at your fertility options and they should be able to set up appointments etc. for you. You do have to do it BEFORE chemo starts. The fertility clinic people are wonderful though and it's obligation free so even if you change your mind once you get all the info it's ok. The clinic also gave me free appointments to speak with their fertility counsellor to help me with my decision! It gave me a much better sense of 'peace of mind' and I'm now really glad I did it as I don't know if my early menopause will stop or not but at least I still have a backup option just in case it doesn't!

Good luck and let me know how you go :) xx