Breast Cancer in Young Egg Donors: A Call for Follow-up, Research, and Transparency on the Long-Term Risks of Ovarian Stimulation

197 words] In the United States, prospective egg donors are usually told there are no known long-term risks of the hormonal stimulation or egg retrieval process (for example, cancer or infertility). They often interpret this to mean that there are no risks. The reason for the lack of knowledge, however, is that to date there have been no long-term outcome studies of the health risks to such young women. The only information we have are (1) case reports, and (2) population studies of a different group, infertile women who underwent hormonal stimulation for IVF, women already known to have differential risks of various cancers. This report describes 5 individual cases of egg donors who developed breast cancer (4/5 in their 30s) despite negative genetic testing. Additionally, we summarize available studies of breast cancer in infertile women who experienced IVF, some with too-short a