Egg Freezing, is it worth it?

Hi Zenmushroom,

I got diagnosed just after I turned 30. Too bad I waited and it became stage IIb with cancer cells in lymph nodes. I was 29 when I felt something was weird with my right nipple but I thought it was just aging process (and I was crazy busy with my work and wedding planning). Seriously, what kind of 20s-30s ladies think about getting breast cancer? -_-;

When I got diagnosed, I was a newly wed and my husband and I just moved from DC to MA. Because we don't make much money as recently graduated grad students, we received "Fertile Hope" grant for one IVF cycle. Although I spent 10K+ and lost most of my savings, I was happy that I did it because it gave me peace of mind while I was going through treatments. While I was getting radiation, my period came back. (According to Dana Farber Cancer Institute, females under 35 most likely get period back after chemo. 35 or over it's 50/50 or lower). After tamoxifen, I will try to get pregnant naturally. If it doesn't work, it's okay because I have my second option :-)

Because of your age, you will most likely be able to have your own babies after your treatments (and your prognosis looks good!). Have you asked your oncologist if you could suppress your ovaries (with lupron or zoladex)? That way your ovaries don't get damaged during chemo. I was too sick to even add lupron to my treatment plan, so I didn't get it. I was glad that I decided to freeze my eggs.

If you have money (even with the grant we spent $10k+ for ICSI and storage fee.. it was a little cheaper to save my fertilized embryos), IVF is not a bad option, but you should definitely look into the ovarian suppression option.

Hope this helps!

Hey Zenmushroom, I did not have egg freezing for a combination of reasons - many of the same reasons you stated actually. Sometimes I wish I had done it, but overall I'm ok with the fact that I didn't. It's a very personal decision.

I started out with a stage 1 diagnosis at 32, but then I had a local recurrence while on tamoxifen so I just started treatment again. Although my ovaries made it through chemo the first time, they said they probably wouldn't make it through the second time. For the recurrence there was just no time to do egg freezing. I've been making peace with the fact that I will probably never have biological children. Right now my own survival is most important to me, so I think I'm ok with it. Still, there is some mourning that for me that door is probably closed.

It is so unlikely that you will ever end up in my situation, but if you freeze your eggs you'll have that as a backup plan, no matter what else happens. As mentioned above, doing both egg freezing and ovarian suppression during chemo will help you maximize your chances to have a child. BCO has an excellent podcast on this here:

http://www.breastcancer.org/community/podcasts/ova...

For me it helped to ask: can I be happy in life without ever having children? For me the answer was yes. Hugs and best wishes to you in your decision.

There are different reasons why someone would end up in a forum titled "Is freezing eggs worth it?"

I'll share my personal experience and maybe that will help someone through their decision process.

I was diagnosed at 41 (Sept. 2014) with estrogen positive bc plus HER-2 positive, sizable tumor but no lymph involvement. I'll share with you the reasons why I didn't freeze my eggs and what I've learned since then, 3 1/2 years later.

I didn't freeze my eggs because...

1. I was scared. Scared that delaying chemo would make it spread to the lymphs or just simply keep growing. Oncologists told me from the get go that I might go into menopause as a result of chemotherapy but they don't educate you much on the specifics of fertility issues, at least that was my experience. So I was also afraid that the estrogen involved in stimulating the eggs would also cause the cancer to grow.

What I've learned since then...

They haven't found pregnancy to increase recurrences and the hormones involved in fertility treatments involve much less hormones, so the idea of getting "more cancer" when I already had cancer I think was more fear than science.

The process of stimulating ovulation to retrieve the eggs takes about three weeks maybe even less when you're premenopausal at least, I don't know otherwise. I was diagnosed Sept. 8, 2014 and started chemo Oct. 22, 2014, while I found the right hospital to treat me, I could have frozen my eggs. Which leads me to reason 2...

2. Besides being scared I had to figure out how I was going to take time off from work. I was running around getting all these scans and tests done while trying to choose the best oncologist and hospital. The less time I took off work, the more sick time I was reserving. So I prioritized my treatment. Makes sense, but now looking back: My boss was supportive and I think I've always been a bit of a workaholic, specially precancer, so I remember coming back to work after scanning my brain or a biopsy, because I was so concerned about getting my work done.

Looking back on that...

I should have just made time for it. Period. My fertility should have also been prioritized. I can't imagine it wouldn't have been something I couldn't somehow schedule.

3. I was told that because I was 41 there was 50% I would/wouldn't get my period back. Because I was scared and trying to balance the logistics/planning of my treatment I left it up to faith. In my heart, I felt I would be in the 50% that would get her period back because...my mother didn't start menopause until age 54, and my sisters at that time, 52 and 53, were not in menopause yet, and the reason women over 40 often don't get their period back is because they're closer to menopause, so I figured that wasn't me. Also I was extremely regular, like clockwork, I would know I was ovulating because I had that egg white like fluid coming out of me, very noticeably, every month. I couldn't even conceptualize myself as infertile.

Naive me. What I know now is that my treatment was very aggressive. I never got my period back. And that you can't leave something like this up to faith, you have to be proactive. "Help thyself and I shall help thee."

4. At the time these were my exact words "I am 41 years old, I have not prioritized having a family up to this point, I'm not about to delay my treatment". Of course, like I explained, I didn't realize that I wouldn't really be delaying treatment. But why did I say these words?

Now looking back I realize that the reason why I hadn't had children by 41 wasn't because I didn't WANT kids. In fact, looking back a lot of the decisions I made before age 41 had to do with GETTING to be at good place to have a child. In my heart, there was ALWAYS that little seed, though I was traveling and working on my career, there was a tiny part of me that was open to the possibility of kids.

5. I wasn't around babies much. LOL, but seriously all of my friends were career orientated like me. I have nieces and nephews, but they're older. Then two of my friends had babies, after I got cancer. Watching them go through their pregnancies and being around their babies while being in menopause caused by cancer treatment has been hard for me.

In conclusion, I personally wish I would have frozen my eggs because if I had I would have what cancer took from me: CHOICE. Cancer changed me, I see life differently now, and that desire to have my own children that I didn't feel very strongly about now is strong, and now I don't have options.

I knew people freeze eggs and ending up with a healthy baby!! also heard about stories after 5 years treatment and medications cured from BC also had baby natually!! you have to feel comfortable about your decision, and the first priorty is now getting better! good luck

I’m 35 diagnosed about three weeks ago. I’m struggling to make a decision as to freeze my eggs or not. I blessed to have one child but alway desired more. I’m ok with Freezing my eggs but the unsettling part is the injections and cost, even with the grant I would still be out of $4800 dollars. Also I feel like I don’t have time to start the egg freezing process. I don’t want to push back the chemo treatments. Everything is happening so fast. So many life changing decisions to make and feeling like I need to make the decisionsso quickly. Overwhelmed is under statement.