Fertility and Cancer: Questions Young Patients Should Ask First

When a young patient or couple receives a cancer diagnosis, the focus often turns immediately to survival and treatment. However, as Dr. Tony Anderson, CEO and Founder of IVF Academy USA, explains in his conversation with CURE, it is equally important to consider long-term quality of life, including future family planning.

In this discussion, he highlights the essential questions patients should ask their care team early, emphasizing the importance of understanding all available treatment options alongside fertility preservation strategies.

Transcript

What would you tell a young patient or a young couple who may receive a cancer diagnosis? What questions should they ask their care team right away?

I look and think, "What would I do if it was my daughter or my son?" I heard this in a podcast once: you look at everybody as if they were a baby, right? You have to look at them in their infancy, and they just don't know.

Everybody wants to know what their likelihood of surviving the cancer is, right? And most people would recognize that with any cancer, the earlier you get diagnosed, the more treatable it is. I suspect that if we live long enough, we're probably all going to have some form of cancer. Maybe not a bad cancer, but we'll all have some form. I've even had types of skin cancer, nothing that's going to harm me, just basal cell type stuff. That being said, before you start treatment, I think every patient should ask their provider, "What are my options?" And the provider should have an answer in the context of where they're at in their life. Do they have children? Do they want to have children?

They should give them the opportunities that are out there. That's why I say you don't want to wait until then and say, "Well, let me look up some fertility centers nearby." The fertility centers are here. Every city has them. You should have those relationships already established so that they can go right away, because time is of the essence. You don't want to be waiting to see who you like and go interview the doctor. If I'm looking for a lawyer today, I'm going to say, "Hey, do you know any lawyers you would recommend?" or if I'm looking for a mechanic, "Do you know anybody who works on Toyota Camrys?" We tend to refer to people that we trust. So when a doctor tells us to go to a specific fertility center, then that's who they're going to go to.

The first question a patient wants to know is, "What's going to happen? What are my options?" The doctor should have a response in the context of, "Here is what our treatment plan is, but you should consider the fertility preservation plan along with that." They need to go home and think about it. You don't want to do things too soon and too rash; think about the outcomes. I'm hoping I've given some context around that, not just for today, but the future of those oocytes or that sperm that is frozen, because it technically can be frozen forever. How long can it be frozen? That's one of the common questions I get. Forever. It basically goes into a stasis mode. We put them on pause, and nothing happens to them unless they get thawed out.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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