Getting pregnant after HER2+Breast cancer

RPS I think the real issue here is that your are horomone positive. I do believe your MDs are worried that getting pregnant will increase the horomones in your body. I would ask your doctors to give you some literature on the subject so you can understand.

Here is a link to check out: Pregnancy After Treatment

Hi --  Lago is absolutely right, that has been the accepted belief by modern medical providers. However, the news today is helpful for this question.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/03/21/pregnancy-safe-for-women-with-estrogen-sensitive-breast-cancer  

The whole topic of who to trust and what and why is very challenging, whether one is discussing conventional or alternative.

As pathetic as it genuinely is, I got such a laugh out of the news today that is "letting us know" that it is safe for women to become pregnant after having toxic therapies for breast cancer. I'm not laughing at the women who have unfortunately had bc and want to become pregnant at all. It is just that after contemplating all the do's and don't's over the last 10 years since my treatment, it sounds very much to me like the Evil Estrogen that modern medicine has put the hex sign on for so long is FINALLY acquiring a more accurate evaluation..... after so many years of making women with bc paranoid about the use of it, and dusrupting any focus on what damage there may be by going to the nth degree with medical recommendations to completely eliminate it from all of the systems in our bodies where it has a healthy function.

A.A.

Have you brought this article/study in to your onc to discuss? It might be possible that your onc feels there isn't enough people in the study to warrant a change or there are flaws in the study.  Of course that doesn't mean the study isn't true.

Also DCIS is frequently HER2+ but once it goes invasive it doesn't always remain HER2+. Is there a reason why you are stage I and not stage 0? Is there an invasive component to make you stage I? So I'm not sure if the HER2+ even plays a part in this decision.

I'm HER2-, so my input might not be right on the mark, but I wanted to chime in here. No research, just a personal story.

I was first diagnosed at age 37, when my kids were 3 and 6. ER/PR positive.  I stayed on tamoxifen for 2-1/2 years and then had the talk with my doctor about trying for another baby. He agreed and said that pregnancy hormones can have a protective effect, so it should be okay. He warned me that there was risk, but we decided it was an acceptable risk.

I got pregnant right away, but unfortunately had a placental abruption at 19 weeks in June 2011. We were going to continue trying to get pregnant again until June 2012 and then give up and I would have my ovaries removed, to be safe.  I was diagnosed last week with a metastatic recurrence.

I hear a lot of myself in your post -- I was healthy, I was cured, life was great!  Why not get pregnant?

My doctor tells me that my decision to come off tamoxifen and try for a baby wasn't a factor in the new diagnosis - that it would have happened anyway; but I'm not sure I will ever be able to silence that voice in my head telling me this is my own fault for wanting another child.

I don't want to sound like I'm saying you shouldn't try. (If someone had said it to me, I'm not sure I would have listened either). I just hope that you really examine the possible consequences and you are prepared to deal with them. 

I wish you all the best. It's hard to know what to do when there is so much conflicting information out there, but I am sure you will decide on the best course of action for you.

RPS2008 it sounds like you have IDC (invasive ductal carcinoma) not DCIS (ductal carcinoma in sito). I actually had both in my tumor. IDC being invasive being the invasive cancer.

With this agressive cancer it typically recurs in the first 3 years. The risk goes down even further after 5 years but being hormone positive there is a bigger long term risk but according to this article women with lower grade tumors tend to reoccur later. So I guess what I'm saying is maybe at least wait till the full 5 years of NED has passed.

I would really try to get some good information about this before you go ahead. I wish I had more to offer you but I don't. Would you ever consider adopting?

I have another question though. Are you sure you are grade 1? Typically HER2+ tumors are grade 3, sometimes grade 2. I'm not sure if I've seen anyone on the boards before with IDC HER2+ grade 1 tumor.

BTW my onc is also in her early 60's. That may seem old to you but not really. My LE MD is 74!

I find it so interested that we have extrememly similar cases.  I was diagnosed with triple positive in february, had surgery and just began chemo (ACT) last week.  I am 32 years old and I have a 2 and a 3 year old and had to decided if i was going to freeze my eggs.  We decided not to, and I dont know how I will feel in 5.5 years.  I am currently struggling with chemo and being positive.. how did you do it??!!?

Hi there,

I'm new to the site, and not sure if I'm doing this right and how it works, but my question is, now that it is 2013, did you make the decision to have a child, and did everything turn out okay, I myself has been struggling to this, for 2 and a half years now, I froze my fertilized eggs, and now after all that money I spent, I'm wondering if the best thing is to just forget about it and adopt, I was diagnosed sept 28,2010, I just turned 34,erpr positive, stage one grade 2, her 2 positive, 0 nodes involved, did TCH, 10 treatments, and 1 year of Herceptin, and trying to get through 5 years of tamoxifen.at 2 years in May, I've been reading all the sites for 2 years, and it scares me, I just don't know what to do, I want a baby so bad, but I don't want to get cancer back, thanks for your time..sang

Good luck deciding. It is tough. I had my baby boy in November with the assistance of a gestational carrier. It was the best of both worlds, baby but no risk. He was born early but is perfect. I hope you have good luck and you get your baby, however you get him/her!