Pregnancy

Get Email Updates

Related Checklists

Pregnancy Guide

Daisy Nodal Guide

Have a question? We're here to help. Ask the Community.

ASK

Free Newsletter

Receive the latest and greatest in women's health and wellness from EmpowHER!

Keri Shares How Cancer Affected Her Fertility Decisions (VIDEO)

By Keri April 28, 2009 - 10:38am
 
Rate This
0 comments View Comments

Keri describes how her family's history of cancer affected the fertility decisions she made.

More Videos from Keri 28 videos in this series

Keri:

My mother’s mother, so my grandmother, had died of colon cancer, and my mother had breast cancer and she was treated and she is cancer-free now. But my fear was going to, taking fertility drugs and what the long-term effects would be, and if it did increase my risk for developing breast cancer where I already have this predisposition or this increased risk from my mother.

So when talking with the fertility specialist, at the time, he told me that it didn’t increase my risk at all. I didn’t really feel comfortable with that answer. I did some research. There is no research out there that says that there is a direct correlation; however, the studies that I found were short-term studies. What our biggest concern was, was realizing 10 or 20 years from now after I did the drugs to say, "Oh yes, there is a correlation between taking hormone replacement or fertility drugs and breast cancer." So that was our, my biggest concern.

I didn’t want to change anything or potentiate anything that would increase my risk of developing breast cancer because that is something that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. If it happened naturally because of my risk later on in life, that is something that I could deal with, but if somebody had told me that there was a correlation, I would feel really bad that I had these children and now look what I did. So, that was my concern and that’s how I was looking at it at that time.

View More Videos On Infertility:
http://www.empowher.com/condition/infertility-fertility/community/all/re...

0 comments View Comments
 
Rate This

Around the Web

Add a CommentComments

There are no comments yet. Be the first one and get the conversation started!

Image CAPTCHA
By hitting submit, you agree to EmpowHER's terms of service and privacy policy

Take our Featured Poll

Do you support the idea of a single woman using In Vitro Fertilization to have a baby?:
View Results