A cancer diagnosis is devastating, but with advances in the field of oncology, diagnoses are made much earlier and treatments are becoming much more successful, leading to increased survival rates. Many cancers are now successfully treated, allowing people to live long lives after diagnosis. Unfortunately, infertility is one major complication that can affect women and men following these increasingly effective cancer therapies.
Getting Started with Fertility Preservation
We understand the time constraints and emotional stress of patients facing cancer treatment and are pleased to offer you expedited, compassionate care at a discounted rate. Most visits are arranged within 24 to 72 hours of your first call. At your initial consultation, your doctor will review your history and options. Your protocol will vary depending on your age, health, type of cancer, and cancer treatment plan.
Learn more about the egg freezing technique, vitrification, which is now available to women who are facing an illness and may need to protect their reproductive potential.
Fertility Preservation Options for Women
Female fertility preservation methods may require you to postpone your medical treatment for several weeks or months, so it is best to start the process as soon as possible. Freezing embryos remains the most successful approach for women, but embryo freezing is not possible for women who do not have a partner or do not wish to use donor sperm. In these cases, we recommend egg freezing, ovarian tissue cryopreservation, ovarian suppression, or ovarian transposition. When you are ready to move forward with fertility preservation, call our center.
Fertility Preservation Options for Men
Cancer treatment adversely affects sperm quality and can lead to infertility in men. We strongly encourage our male patients to consider freezing semen, preferably before initiation of cancer treatment. The process is fairly quick and usually uncomplicated. When you come in for a consultation, we will perform a semen analysis to evaluate your fertility and can discuss your options, including semen cryopreservation (freezing), semen banking (storage of frozen sperm), and other services.
The Costs of Treatment
Our supportive staff members are here for you and will answer any questions you have regarding your insurance benefits and associated fertility preservation costs. We are partners with LIVESTRONG (Fertile Hope), offering cancer patients help through the Sharing Hope program. We provide fertility preservation treatments and medications at a discount for qualifying patients.
We take great pride in the fertility preservation, reproductive technology, and lab services that we offer here at AZARH. Our state-of-the-art options allow you to move through the process quickly so you can begin your treatment and recovery.