Oncofertility

Oncofertility Services in Tennessee

Don’t let a cancer diagnosis get in the way of your fertility goals. We offer counseling, treatment, and support to help you explore the possibility of preserving your fertility for the future.

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What is Oncofertility?

Oncofertility focuses on helping people with cancer understand how treatment may affect their reproductive health and explore options for preserving fertility. Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and other medical treatments can sometimes affect the ovaries, testes, or other parts of the reproductive system, with effects that may be temporary or permanent.

When possible, fertility preservation should be discussed before cancer treatment begins. At Tennessee Fertility Institute, our fertility specialists work with you and your oncology team to understand your treatment plan, discuss your future family-building goals, and determine which fertility preservation options may be appropriate for you.

Fertility Preservation Before Cancer Treatment

If you have recently been diagnosed with cancer and may want to have biological children in the future, it is important to discuss fertility preservation as early as possible. Some fertility preservation options need to be completed before chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, or other treatments begin.

Cancer care should not be unnecessarily delayed, which is why coordination between your fertility specialist and oncology team is so important. Together, they can consider your diagnosis, treatment plan, timeline, and fertility goals to determine which options may be possible before treatment begins.

Fertility Preservation Options

Depending on your reproductive health, cancer treatment plan, and timeline, you may have several options for preserving your fertility. Your fertility specialist and oncology team can work together to determine which options may be appropriate before treatment begins.

Sperm Freezing

Sperm freezing is typically completed before cancer treatment begins. One or more semen samples are collected, analyzed, processed, and cryopreserved for potential future use with fertility treatments such as intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization.

If sperm cannot be obtained through ejaculation, surgical sperm retrieval may be an option in some circumstances. Your fertility specialist can recommend an approach based on your individual needs and treatment timeline.

Egg Freezing

Egg freezing allows eggs to be retrieved and cryopreserved before cancer treatment for potential use in the future. The process generally involves ovarian stimulation with fertility medications, followed by egg retrieval and vitrification, a rapid freezing technique used to preserve the eggs.

Because the process takes time to complete, it is important to involve a fertility specialist as early as possible after a cancer diagnosis. Your fertility and oncology teams can coordinate care based on when your cancer treatment needs to begin.

Embryo Banking

Embryo freezing is another established fertility preservation option. Eggs are retrieved and fertilized with sperm through IVF, and resulting embryos are cryopreserved for potential future use.

Like egg freezing, this process requires ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval before embryos can be created and frozen. Your fertility specialist can work with your oncology team to determine whether embryo freezing is appropriate based on your treatment plan, timeline, and family-building goals.

Explore Oncofertility Services in Tennessee

Fertility is personal — your care should be, too. If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and are concerned about how treatment may affect your fertility, request a consultation with one of our fertility specialists to discuss your options for preserving your future family-building possibilities.