“Can you harvest eggs after a hysterectomy?”

Eggs come from the ovaries. If you have ovarian cancer then when you have surgery more than likely the ovaries are going to be removed. Depending on the type and extent of the cancer there is a slight chance that eggs could be harvested prior to your surgery. You may want to talk to an IVF doctor

Sorry to hear about the difficult news. If the cancer is limited to one ovary, it might be reasonable to just remove one ovary and leave the other ovary and uterus. That would be an important conversation with your gyn oncologist. If they leave the uterus, you can do future egg donor, even if both ovaries are removed. If both ovaries are removed, no eggs can be obtained. A lot of this depends on the type of cancer and extent of spread to other areas. You really need to have a serious urgent talk with your oncologist.

Best regards,

Daniel Levine, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.

I don't understand your question. If you are going to have a hysterectomy for ovarian cancer then both of your ovaries in all likelihood will be removed. It is not possible to harvest eggs after they have been removed. If you are going to only have one removed it may be possible to harvest later. That process generally involves stimulating the ovary with strong hormones to ripen multiple eggs which are then harvested by ultrasound or surgically. You can check with your oncologist to see if they can cryopreserve some of your ovarian tissue but highly doubt they would do that if you have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.