Egg Freezing: The Adolescent Fertility Preservation Option for Females
At our Los Angeles oncofertility center, we understand the stress that a cancer diagnosis places on a family – especially when the one fighting the disease is a young girl with her whole life ahead of her. To ensure that your daughter’s future includes the possibility to have her own biological family one day, we offer a highly effective adolescent fertility preservation option for females facing cancer treatment.
Some cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, can disrupt hormones and affect your daughter’s egg supply, leading to low ovarian reserve, early menopause or infertility. Some effects may not become apparent until later in your daughter’s life, when she is an adult and ready to start her own family. In other cases, girls need surgery that can damage the reproductive organs and make it difficult or impossible to become pregnant in the future.
If your adolescent daughter is facing a cancer diagnosis, it’s critical to explore fertility preservation through egg freezing before her cancer treatment begins. Once your daughter begins treatment, it may be too late to take advantage of this fertility preservation option.
A good adolescent fertility preservation option for females fighting cancer
Not all girls who undergo cancer treatment will lose their fertility, although cancer treatment places many at higher risk of early menopause. Because cancer treatment is customized to each patient and often involves a combination of approaches and drugs, it’s difficult to predict the impact on an adolescent’s future fertility. That’s why many families choose egg freezing at our Los Angeles oncofertility center to preserve their daughters’ fertility.
Egg freezing can be an effective way to preserve future fertility in girls who have already entered or are close to puberty, which typically occurs between the ages of nine and 15. For girls who are not yet menstruating, egg freezing may be possible after cancer treatment is complete and the girl reaches puberty, giving your daughter more options if her egg supply suffers long-term damage.
The process for this adolescent fertility preservation option for females is similar to IVF, except after the eggs are retrieved, they are frozen and stored, rather than immediately fertilized with sperm.
- Your daughter will take a series of ovarian stimulation injections over the course of a few weeks.
- During this time, her ovaries will be monitored for egg development via ultrasound.
- Once multiple eggs are mature enough for retrieval, they will be retrieved under light anesthesia in a quick, minimally invasive outpatient procedure.
- Your daughter’s eggs will be frozen and stored in case she should one day need them to achieve pregnancy through IVF.
If you’re considering egg freezing as an adolescent fertility preservation option for females, it’s important to quickly get all the facts and discuss the decision with your daughter’s oncologist and other specialists before her cancer treatment starts.
The fertility preservation experts at our Los Angeles oncofertility center will work in close collaboration with your daughter’s medical team to ensure that the procedure is appropriate and safe for her specific situation. Our Los Angeles oncofertility center also ensures that all guidelines for your daughter’s informed consent are followed.
Protect your daughter’s fertility
We understand your worries about the impact of your daughter’s cancer diagnosis on her future, and we want to help you through this stressful time. If you have questions about adolescent fertility preservation for females, we would be happy to fast-track a consultation with you to help you make an informed choice. Contact our Los Angeles oncofertility center to schedule a priority appointment with one of our adolescent egg freezing specialists.