Fertility preservation for individuals with uterine or ovarian cancer using assisted reproductive technologies

Abstract

Since cancer patients are now much more likely to survive after treatment, fertility preservation has received a
lot of attention lately. Prior to cancer treatment, gametes or embryos have been cryopreserved to maintain
fertility because some cancer treatments are gonadotoxic, which lowers the ability of cancer survivors to
procreate. For prepubescent boys, cryopreserving semen or testicular tissue has been an experimental method of
preserving fertility, despite being the most common method for men.
Using assisted reproduction for treatment The most promising method of preserving fertility in women before
cancer treatment is the cryopreservation of oocytes or embryos. There have been reports of live births following
cryopreserved ovarian cortex auto-transplantation. Because ovarian cortex transplantation may reintroduce the
disease, this approach might not be feasible for women with ovarian, endometrial, or estrogen-sensitive breast
cancer. In these patients, oophorectomy is frequently performed, which results in complete infertility. There are
other ways to maintain these women's fertility.
It has been reported that modern methods of preserving fertility in patients with ovarian cancer include
harvesting oocytes for cryopreservation in women without male partners or embryos following in vitro
maturation and ICSI of harvested oocytes in women with male partners. This article reviews the effectiveness of
such methods.