Options For Preserving Fertility Help Women with Cancer

Young women undergoing cancer treatment have an increasing number of options for preserving their fertility, a leading researcher told attendees today at the 58th Annual Clinical Meeting of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Thanks to a new medical discipline known as oncofertility, the reproductive outlook for women cancer patients is becoming as good as for men, who long have had the option of banking their sperm, according to Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, in her lecture "Oncofertility: The Preservation of Fertility Options for Young People with Cancer." A promising new technique for preserving ovarian tissue has the potential to safeguard the future fertility even of very young girls undergoing cancer treatment, she said.

Dr. Woodruff, the Thomas J. Watkins professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern, coined the term "oncofertility" to describe oncologists and reproductive specialists working hand-in-hand to preserve patients' fertility while treating their disease. She is the leader of the Oncofertility Consortium, which draws on cutting-edge research to counsel patients on fertility options. Headquartered at Northwestern and supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Consortium operates through more than 50 centers in 29 states.

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