Published 27 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2045
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2045

Clinical Review

Preservation of fertility in adults and children diagnosed with cancer

Roger Hart, associate professor of reproductive medicine, medical director1,2

1 School of Women’s and Infants’ Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6008, Australia, 2 Fertility Specialists of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6010

roger.hart@uwa.edu.au

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Warn patients of the possible effects that treatment may have on their reproductive capacity
Provide access to a fertility specialist and supportive counselling
Sperm banking is an effective and well established technique for adolescent boys and men
Women should be offered access to oocyte or embryo freezing if sufficient time is available before treatment begins
Oocyte cryostorage has limited success and freezing of ovarian tissue is still experimental


In the United Kingdom each year 11 000 patients aged 15-40 years are diagnosed with cancer, and more than half of them will live for more than five years.1 2 Patients want quality of life, including the ability to have a family, and many request advice on fertility preservation. This review describes the fertility preservation techniques available and recent recommendations from the UK and the United States.3 4 5


We searched Medline and the Cochrane library using the keywords "cancer and fertility", "chemotherapy and fertility . . . [Full text of this article]



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  • Anderson, R. A, Wallace, W H. (2008). Uncertainties in preserving fertility in cancer treatment. BMJ 337: a2577-a2577 [Full text]  

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