Breast Cancer’s Impact on Motherhood
Breast cancer treatment can damage fertility, reducing the rate of having children after the illness, according to Assoc.Prof.Meryem Kurek Eken. Routine screening programs are not performed for breast cancers seen at a young age, and benign structures are usually considered before cancer, leading to mostly advanced stage diagnoses. Eken explains that breast cancer in young patients has an aggressive course due to its structure, showing the importance of preserving fertility in this young population. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women, with 1 percent of patients under the age of 30 and 6.6 percent diagnosed under the age of 40. Recent studies have shown that 50 percent of breast cancer cases want to have children in the future. Therefore, young patients diagnosed with breast cancer should be referred to a reproductive health and infertility center without delay to store embryos, or if the patient is not married, eggs can be frozen through in vitro fertilization treatment. Immediate action after diagnosis is essential to preserve fertility in young breast cancer patients.
