Placing the history of oncofertility.

On Fertile Hope’s website, Cathy, who at 35 was diagnosed with cervical cancer, shared her feelings and thoughts about her double diagnosis of cancer and infertility. At the time of her cancer diagnosis, Cathy had been married for 3 years and she and her husband had been trying to conceive for 2 years. Following their first attempt using Clomid and insemination, Cathy got pregnant with twins. Their joy abruptly ended, however, when 4 months into her pregnancy Cathy learned she had cervical cancer; her oncologist recommended an immediate hysterectomy. It was, she recalled a year later, “a total nightmare.” Cathy and her husband lost the twins and the radiation therapy that followed destroyed her ovaries, putting her into early menopause. After her hysterectomy but before her radiation treatment, her gynecological oncologist asked Cathy if she wanted to harvest some of her eggs. When Cathy said yes, the couple underwent one in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle before the radiation treatment began. That cycle resulted in six eggs which were fertilized, out of which four embryos were frozen for future use with a gestational carrier. Cathy told Fertile Hope that the whole experience had been devastating: