Hormone therapy
Hormone therapy uses drugs to change how hormones work in the body. This therapy helps reduce the chance that the cancer will return. This treatment can be used to treat a cancer that has returned after treatment or has spread further around the body. Hormone therapy is given to young women with cancers that are sensitive to or dependent on hormones. The treatment can slow or stop the growth of the cancer cells by:
- Lowering the number of hormones in your body
- Influencing the way that cancer cells respond to hormones, to prevent their growth
Some of the hormones that hormone therapy tries to lower are the same ones that are needed for fertility. This means that treatment can affect your ability to fall pregnant. The hormones in hormone therapy can make your periods irregular or make them stop. Your periods may return a few months after you have stopped hormone therapy. Hormone therapy itself is not damaging to the ovary, so your periods should return a few months after you have stopped it. If your periods do not return after hormone therapy, this may be because of the effects of other treatment such as chemotherapy that you might have had.
If you have hormone therapy as part of your cancer treatment, you will be advised not to get pregnant during treatment or for a while afterwards.
