News

Video

Patients With Cervical Cancer Should Explore Their Fertility Options

Cervical cancer survival and Cervivor ambassador Kate Weissman provides advice on conversations patients with cervical cancer should be having with their care teams.

When receiving a diagnosis of cervical cancer, patients should discuss their fertility options with their care team and be attuned to their mental and emotional well-being, as a survivor and advocate Kate Weissman told CURE®.

“You need to understand and advocate for yourself (and say), ‘Look, this is something that I want to do in my life. This is something I want to have options for in my life. So, what can we do?’ If the answer is ‘Absolutely not,’ then that's a situation where mental health resources really need to come into play,” Weissman advised.

Weismann received a diagnosis of stage 2B cervical cancer in 2015 at the age of 30, two years after being diagnosed with HPV, she was also told by her oncologist that she would not be able to carry children. She began IVF, froze nine embryos and received treatment via 55 rounds of radiation, 17 rounds of chemotherapy and surgery before being declared cancer-free in 2016. She and her husband, Matt, eventually had a daughter, Louella, via surrogacy.

Weissman is now an ambassador for Cervivor, a community of patient advocates working with those affected by cervical cancer, and a 2023 Cervivor Champion Recipient, as well as the Massachusetts State Lead Ambassador for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Learn more: Expert Offers 3 Ways to Be a Self-Advocate During Cancer Treatment

She spoke with CURE® about what conversations patients should be having with their care teams after receiving a diagnosis of cervical cancer.

Transcription:

It has to be: What are my options? And you need to understand and advocate for yourself, ‘Look, this is something that I want to do in my life. This is something I want to have options for in my life. So, what can we do?’ If the answer is ‘Absolutely not,’ then that's a situation where mental health resources really need to come into play.

I think a lot of people are just so focused on curing the cancer, which of course is the number one priority, but we also need to make sure that we're unpacking for women what they're also mourning the loss of while they are going through this really difficult time and scary time of their life. So, we need to also make sure that mental health resources are deployed for women.

And I really advise everyone to explore your options, but also to make sure that you're researching different grants that you can apply for because having a baby in a non-traditional way is extremely expensive, no matter which route you go — surrogacy, adoption, egg donors, any of the above, they're really expensive. And it also depends on what state you live in, what's going to be covered and not covered for you.

So, I recommend people start to explore any grant opportunities, do a GoFundMe, figure out how financially you're going to cover this too, if it's a goal of yours, because it's going to be expensive.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

For more news on cancer updates, research and education, don’t forget to subscribe to CURE®’s newsletters here.

Related Videos
Image of Dr. Goy.
Dr. Tycel Phillips is an Associate Professor in the Division of Lymphoma, Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, at City of Hope in Duarte, California.
Image of Dr. Salani.
Dr. Debu Tripathy is a professor and chairman of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, and the editor-in-chief of CURE®.
Dr. Suneel Kamath is an assistant professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, in Ohio.
Image of Dr. Fakih.
Dr. Catherine Wu is chief of the Division of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and institute member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Dr. John Oertle discusses the key benefits to come from patients with cancer connecting with support networks, advocacy groups and resources.
Dr. Gabriel A. Brooks discussed the recent FDA product labeling update for Xeloda and 5-FU.
Dr. Alan Tan is the GU Oncology Lead at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as an associate professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and GU Executive Officer with the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.
Related Content