that whole process takes time like at least a couple of weeks an even more recent option is ovarian transposition this is where the ovaries are actually surgically moved higher up into the abdomen so they're out of harm's way if radiation is being aimed in that direction the ovaries are movable who knew not me but sometimes things actually progressed too fast some patients like betty don't actually have the luxury of time to explore all their fertility options before they urgently need to start treatment for their cancer unfortunately due to the rate of the cancer growing and how fast i was deteriorating i was given the option to freeze my eggs but it would postpone treatment for two months which would make my prognosis very bleak so me and my ex-husband made the decision to go ahead with treatment because we already had our our newborn it's a tough decision to face but luckily there are some exciting advancements on the horizon like artificial ovaries this is where the patient's own ovarian tissue can be removed and frozen a technique known as cryopreservation it can then be used to create a scaffold seeded with their own ovarian follicles and all of this can then be prompted to function as an ovary and produce eggs outside the body like we're living in the future dude it can then be transplanted back into the body where the hope is that it could resume function as a normal ovary again this research is still in its early stages and has only been trialled in lab animals so far but it's a promising future option other experimental ovarian cryopreservation techniques have been tried successfully and have resulted in live human births plus something that's just as important as these advancements is who exactly will have access to them a patient has to be aware that these services exist if they don't ask for it themselves and so empowering our cancer specialists to know about the ways that we can assist patients to preserve their fertility and just kind of spreading the knowledge amongst the practitioners and we can't forget that all of this costs money i wish i could say that fertility preservation was free but there's also some great societies out there that provide grants for patients to help offset some of the costs and so we try to meet patients you know kind of where they are to get them the care that they want depending on the kind of cancer and the kind of treatment experts recommend that cancer survivors wait anywhere from six months to five years before trying for kids this waiting period reduces the chance of a cancer recurrence and gives the patient adequate time to recover both physically and otherwise now there are lots of folks who complete cancer treatment and go on to have low risk pregnancies and healthy children like betty who got pregnant shortly after getting the green light from her doctor without any fertility help i never expected to get cancer as a new mom at NUMBER_TOKEN. i never expected to have a second child after i was told that i possibly could not have another child so stay positive do your research figure out what you want for your life in your future and where you stand and always always advocate for yourself because no one else is going to do it better than you if you or someone you know is looking for support when dealing with blood cancer then check out the leukemia and lymphoma society they provide patients with free one-on-one support and opportunities to speak with highly trained oncology professionals
START_SELFPROMO_TOKEN you if you or someone you know is looking for support when dealing with blood cancer then check out the leukemia and lymphoma society they provide patients with free one-on-one support and opportunities to speak with highly trained oncology professionals END_SELFPROMO_TOKEN