Oncology Services
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Unfortunately fertility preservation is another factor that someone who is about to undergo cancer treatment may need to consider. Even though you may be at an age where having children is far from your thoughts, it’s important to plan for the future. We offer services for sperm, egg and embryo freezing if you have been diagnosed with cancer and require radiation or chemotherapy. It’s important to see one of our fertility clinicians prior to starting treatment fertility Tasmania can also arrange emergency appointments to work in with you, your Oncologist and your treatment planning.
Services provided to our Oncology patients are bulk billed or provided with no out of pocket expense. Excludes medications.
There are different fertility preservation options available depending on your situation.
Egg Freezing
Egg freezing (oocyte cryopreservation) is a technique whereby eggs are frozen soon after egg collection and before insemination. Egg freezing provides an option to women who are at risk of losing their reproductive potential due to medical conditions such as cancer and its treatment. In order to freeze eggs, a woman will undertake ovarian stimulation, similar to an IVF cycle.
Sperm Freezing
If you are receiving treatment for a serious medical condition such as cancer that may permanently damage your testes and their ability to produce sperm, you may wish to store your sperm at Fertility Tasmania. In Tasmania it is possible to freeze and store sperm for up to 10 years. Due to the potential high risk of damage to your sperm, immediate sperm storage may represent a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to give you the possibility of future parenthood.
Embryo Freezing
If you already have a life partner, it is possible for you to go through IVF treatment and freeze your embryos which are produced using the woman’s eggs and man’s sperm. The advantage of embryo freezing is that it is a well established procedure, and hundreds of thousands of babies have been born from frozen embryos. The success rate of using frozen embryos is similar to that of using fresh embryos.
Ovarian Tissue Freezing
Ovarian Tissue Freezing is usually used only in the instance that eggs or embryos cannot be frozen, and is still officially an experimental technology. Ovarian function can be affected by some forms of chemotherapy or radiotherapy and can result in a woman becoming either subfertile or infertile. Ovarian tissue can be collected and stored (at a low sub-zero temperature) prior to chemotherapy treatment.