Breast Cancer, Infertility, and Freezing Eggs

Breast cancer is fairly common among women. In the United States, 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. There’s a few different ways to go about treating breast cancer, including lumpectomies and mastectomies, hormone and radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Though widely used to treat all types of cancer, chemotherapy is known to have many negative side effects. These include short term impacts, such as nausea and fatigue, and long-term side effects such as memory loss or increased risk of heart disease. And, unfortunately for women, in some cases aggressive chemotherapy can cause infertility later in life.