While some cancer patients have experienced troubles with fertility due to cancer treatments, many have also worked with fertility specialists and experienced successful treatments and subsequent births.

Talk with your healthcare team about fertility preservation before treatment begins. This allows time for you to be referred to a fertility specialist and follow any recommendations.

If you did not discuss fertility or undergo any preservation steps prior to cancer treatments, there may still be several family planning options for you.

Conversations about fertility have been added to treatment guidelines for young adult patients and patients of childbearing years, but you may need to bring this up with a doctor, especially if you already have children or are single.

Here’s what to ask your doctor if fertility is a concern for you:

Treatment for colorectal cancer can affect your fertility in many ways. Both men and women run the risk of infertility after cancer treatments. Infertility, which typically means not getting pregnant despite having carefully timed, unprotected sex for one year, can be a side effect of treatment and affect both males and females.

While some cancer patients have experienced troubles with fertility due to cancer treatments, many have also worked with fertility specialists and experienced successful treatments and subsequent births. While conversations about fertility have been added to treatment guidelines for young adult patients and patients of childbearing years, you may need to bring this up with a doctor, especially if you already have children or are single.

Treatment for colorectal cancer can affect fertility in several ways.

There are several ways to find a fertility specialist. Your doctor may be able to recommend one that he/she has worked with. If not, a good resource is the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) website, which has a “Find a Clinic” database that allows you to locate clinics near you.

Most importantly, let the clinic know that you are a patient with cancer who needs to be seen urgently, so that they can evaluate you well before you start cancer treatment. Ask them: Can colorectal cancer cause infertility? Be ready for honest conversations.

For fertility preservation, there are options for men and women. It’s ideal that you are as healthy as possible and that you avoid tobacco, alcohol, and recreational drugs prior to preserving sperm or eggs.

Male cancer patients can freeze sperm, also called “banking sperm,” before they undergo any colorectal cancer treatments. If men struggle to provide a sample, there are other (more invasive) options.

Frozen sperm can be used for:

• Intrauterine Insemination (IUI—injecting sperm into the uterus)
• In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

Women have several options when it comes to fertility preservation and cancer treatment.

Fertility preservation is expensive, and costs can vary widely between geographic regions.

The cost of fertility treatments varies based on what you do and where you live. Your health plan may also play a role in your out-of-pocket fees; call your health insurance company before undergoing any treatments. On average, treatments can cost:

In vitro fertilization is not only for cancer patients, but many people have used it to conceive a biological child. There are several steps involved with a cycle of IVF.

• Egg stimulation (through injectable hormones done at home)
• Egg collection (done via a minor, outpatient surgery)
• Fertilization into embryos (performed by technicians in a lab using the collected eggs and banked sperm)
• Unthaw eggs, sperm, or embryos if frozen
• Implantation (during another minor, outpatient surgery, the embryo is implanted into the woman)

The success rate of IVF will depend on several factors such as your age, viability of the embryos, and any other fertility or medical problems you may have. If one cycle fails, you may be able to try another. Always talk with your doctor about the success rate of IVF and viability of a pregnancy for you.

Several states have passed laws requiring health insurance companies to cover the costs associated with infertility treatments. See The Alliance for Fertility Preservation’s list of infertility laws by state.

Before undergoing IVF, check with your provider on what’s in-network, out-of-network, and not covered for you.

The success rate of fertility preservation depends on multiple factors, including age, the quality of sperm/eggs or embryos at the time of treatment, and the presence of any other fertility problems. It is important to speak with your fertility specialist to get an accurate estimate of your success rate.

*Please note: For some people, more than 1 cycle is needed to successfully conceive.

While there are a variety of fertility preservation options, most ideally done prior to starting cancer treatment, there are other ways to start a family.

Should you find yourself unable to take fertility preservation steps prior to starting treatment, or should the therapies turn out unsuccessful for you, here are other ways cancer survivors have built their families: