in this issue
Sonja Kristiansen, MD
Medical Director & founder
of
the Houston
Infertility Clinic, Dr. Kristiansen is double board
certified
in
Reproductive
Endocrinology and Obstetrics & Gynecology and
specializes in surgical and IVF procedures.
She has
advanced training in hysteroscopy, laparoscopy, and
microtubal reconstruction. She also works with
female endocrine abnormalities relating to
menstrual and reproductive development.
Quick Links...
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Greetings,
As cancer treatments have become more successful,
far more survivors than ever are living beyond the
disease and into what are typically the most
reproductive times of a person's life. But the same
cancer therapies that save lives can also put an end to
a person's ability to conceive new life.
That's where assisted reproductive techniques come
in - to help preserve the fertility of individuals for their
future.
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Fertility Preservation
Fertility preservation is not entirely new - in fact, many
of the techniques are already used by infertility
patients. Essentially, the goal is to obtain the healthy
gamete cells (eggs from the woman, sperm from the
man) prior to the administration of treatments such as
chemotherapy or radiation. The cells can then be
used later on, once the person has achieved full
health again, to create embryos via in vitro fertilization
(IVF).
The process of freezing sperm cells has been
mastered. Sperm cells are more durable than egg
cells, so the practice of cryopreserving or freezing
them has been around a long time. Many babies have
resulted from frozen sperm.
Eggs, on the other hand, are fragile. Embryologists
and other cellular scientists have worked to find ways
of freezing and thawing egg cells that result in an
intact, viable egg for fertilizing. At the present time, the
technique known as vitrification - sometimes
called 'flash freezing' because it is quicker than the
initial method - appears to yield the most success. So
far, several hundred children have been born around
the world after their mothers had their oocytes
cryopreserved, thawed, and fertilized with IVF.
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Everyone's Right
Having a baby is a quality-of-life issue that cannot be
ignored. Young people who successfully undergo
cancer therapy hold just as much right to have a family
as anyone else. Now, we have the means to provide
them with those choices.
Reproductive specialists are still working to make
sure that oncologists (cancer treatment specialists)
are aware of this very crucial option for their patients.
Particularly in a city such as Houston, where people
come from all over the world for renowned cancer
therapies, the knowledge that fertility preservation is
available - so long as the techniques are conducted
prior to infertility-causing cancer treatment -- is
information worth spreading around.
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In Closing
I welcome your questions about fertility preservation,
whether your interest is related to cancer treatment or
other reasons for delaying conception into the future.
Sincerely,
Sonja B. Kristiansen, MD
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