Talha Mohammad Al-Shawaf: advocated for fertility management as a routine part of cancer therapy for young people

The fact that younger patients with cancer are now offered the chance to have their eggs, embryos, or semen preserved before chemotherapy or radiotherapy is largely down to the efforts of Talha Al-Shawaf.

In 2008 Al-Shawaf, who was clinical director of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, collaborated with the charity CancerBACUP to advocate for a safe “small window” for fertility preservation before patients embarked on aggressive cancer treatment. This was at a time when there was no option other than losing fertility, Luca Sabatini, consultant gynaecologist at Barts, recalls.

The problem, Al-Shawaf explained, was not a shortage of fertility specialists able to carry out the necessary work of freezing semen, eggs, or embryos. Rather it was that oncologists, “unwilling to delay” cancer treatment, were failing to inform patients of this important, potentially life changing option.

Al-Shawaf’s message built on a growing body of research conducted at Barts and elsewhere showing the success of pre-treatment fertility preservation at a time when cancer survival rates were improving.

There was high demand for fertility preservation, even though it meant that patients had to delay starting …