Cancer Treatments Affects the Fertility
Cancer treatment can be prolonged and has various side effects on the body. The fertility of a person is highly affected after the chemotherapy and radiation of the cancer treatment. The treatment procedures of cancer usually harm the reproductive organs and glands that control fertility.
Alkylating drugs used in the chemotherapy damages the sperm in men. It also vastly affects germ cells in men when they are being treated for cancer at a young age. The germ cells are responsible to form sperm in men.
Cancer has become one of the most common diseases in recent times. According to oncologists, every one person out of four is going to be affected by cancer in the next 20 years. The change in lifestyle and environment is the major reason behind such spread of the disease.
While we cannot control the disease, we can always prepare ourselves for it. Men diagnosed with cancer at a young age or before becoming a father should pay attention to preserving his fertility. This can be done by collecting his spawn and freezing it for later use.
Hormone therapy or endocrine therapy used in the treatment of cancer restrict the production of sperm in a person. The radiation affects the reproductive organs, abdomen, pelvis, or spine. The sperm and stem cells are destroyed in the process of radiation. Radiation also damages the brain, pituitary gland and decrease the production of testosterone and sperm. Testicular shielding is used in some type of cancer to protect the testicles.
If a person is suffering from bladder, colon, prostate, and rectal cancer, there are chances of these organs getting damaged after the surgery. The nerves or lymph nodes in the pelvis are also ghastly damaged by the procedures of cancer treatment and causes infertility.
TESA, Testicular Sperm Biopsy is performed after the cancer treatment when the person is ready to become a father. This biopsy is done to determine the quality of sperm in the man.
Sperm retrieval is almost impossible after a person goes through cancer treatment. His body does not remain in the same health condition to produce quality sperm. TESA has proven facts that even after medication for infertility, cancer survivors have not been able to produce the quality of sperm required to fertilize an egg to form a healthy embryo.
As a matter of fact, every individual must go for sperm banking before the cancer treatment. Cancer is no more a chronic disease with no hope of the person getting cured. In fact, the time has changed and there are now multiple dimensions to its cure. People diagnosed with cancer at a young age should be more concerned about preserving their fertility. There are numerous techniques used for fertility preservation.
Oncologists are in favor of a multidisciplinary collaboration with reproductive specialists to create awareness about the fertility preservation of cancer patients. Oncologists give a great amount of attention to fertility issues while treating people at their childbearing ages. New medical technologies have begun to cure cancer in many stages. Hence, the person’s fertility needs to be saved for him or her to continue with her family life later. Various therapies, strong medications and psychological distress cause demolition of fertility in a person. Men lose their sperm count.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the prime treatment procedures for cancer. Both these therapies cause damages to the ovary. The level of damage depends on the drugs and gents used during the therapy, the dosage of drugs, and age of the patient.
Chemotherapeutic drugs interrupt all the important processes of the cells. It arrests the cellular proliferation cycle and damages the germ cells. This creates abnormalities in the patient’s DNA. It also has oxidative damage in the germ and somatic cells. Unrepaired DNA accelerates the apoptotic death in oocytes. Thus, the oocyte results in aneuploidy. This also causes early embryonic mortality in the person undergoing Chemotherapy.
Sperm banking is a collection of semen from the male patient and preserving the healthy sperm from it. In case a person gone through severe cancer treatment has not preserved his sperm, he must go for sperm donation to create an embryo for his family build up. This is because the Testicular Sperm Biopsy after cancer treatment has clearly mentioned the fact that the sperm fertility is almost impossible to retrieve after the treatment.