Using this website to help you make your decision
“I’m thinking about in five years, what about in ten years? What about in the future?”
A 25 year old young woman with ovarian cancer
To support you to make fertility preservation decisions before starting cancer treatment, this website has information to help you:
- Learn more about the different fertility preservation options.
- Think about whether fertility preservation may be an option for you.
- Think about what is important to your life now and in the future.
- Talk to your cancer care team and fertility care team whilst you make your decision.
- Discuss with your cancer care team and fertility care team the consequences and benefits of any decision you may make.
“It answered a lot of my questions. It made me understand more about my treatment and my options. It answered questions that I wouldn’t necessarily ask, it gave me information that I didn’t think I needed to know“… It wasn’t pushing me in any direction. It was very objective, it was clear with what it was saying and it wasn’t saying any of them were better options than the other. It was just stating facts and explaining what it meant and it let me make a decision on whether I liked it or not.”
A 20 year old young woman with lymphoma
There are prompts to help guide you through the website:
- Content pages tell you where you can find sections about cancer treatment, fertility problems, fertility preservation decisions and family planning.
- Decision pictures help show what fertility decisions young women can make, before, during and after cancer treatment.
- Tables compare different fertility preservation options, showing which features of them are the same or similar, and how they differ.
- Questions help you to think about the questions that you may want to ask your cancer and fertility care teams before you start cancer treatment.
- Give ideas of the sorts of things you might want to ask your cancer care team and/or your fertility care team about.
- My values questions to help you think about which fertility preservation option fits best into your life at this time.
- Glossary gives the meaning of the terms used to talk about cancer and its treatment, fertility and fertility preservation.
It is important to remember:
- Some, but not all, young women who are treated for cancer go on to have fertility difficulties.
- Some of the fertility preservation procedures are not suitable for all young women.
- Some of the fertility preservation procedures are not available in all fertility clinics.
