A cancer diagnosis or other life-threatening disease in young children is devastating, and families are often overwhelmed by the urgency of treatment. Unfortunately, the very treatments that save lives, such as chemotherapy and radiation, can also jeopardize a child’s future fertility. Thankfully, there are established and emerging techniques designed to protect fertility, offering children who survive these illnesses the possibility of having biological children in the future.
For pre-pubertal children, traditional fertility preservation methods like egg and sperm freezing are not an option. Instead, for boys, testicular tissue can be frozen, and for girls, ovarian tissue can be preserved. In the future, once the patient is free of disease, these tissues can be thawed and re-implanted, offering the chance to restore fertility. Both ovarian and testicular tissue freezing are valuable methods that can be performed quickly to safeguard future fertility for these young patients.
Fertility preservation for children is still considered experimental, but with rapid advancements in research, it’s important to discuss these options with the patient’s family before starting gonad-toxic therapies. Open communication and collaboration between the family, the primary care team, and the physicians at the Fertility Preservation Center (FPC) are essential in this time-sensitive situation. FPC’s experienced physicians will work closely with families, providing thorough counseling on all available options to ensure informed decisions are made.
FPC physicians are available for emergency 24-7. If you are a potential patient or a physician whose patient potentially requires fertility preservation, please contact us.
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