Women who survive cancer are a third less likely to conceive

Women who survive cancer are more than a third less likely to conceive than other women, research suggests.

New data from more than 23,000 female cancer survivors in Scotland found a 38 per cent reduction in conception compared with the general population. All the women were diagnosed with cancer as children, or as adults under the age of 39.

The research, which has not yet been published in a medical journal, was presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Geneva.

Experts examined data for all types of cancer and found a detrimental effect on fertility across the board, but particularly in patients with cervical cancer, breast cancer and leukaemia.

Cancer and its treatment is known to affect fertility in several ways, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy damaging the ovaries. Radiotherapy may also affect parts of the brain which control reproduction.

Professor Richard Anderson, from Queen’s Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh, who led the study, said: “This analysis provides the first robust, population-based evidence of the effect of cancer and its treatment on subsequent pregnancy across the full reproductive age range.

“The major impact on pregnancy after some common cancers highlights the need for enhanced strategies to preserve fertility in girls and young women.”

The study looked at data for 23,201 female cancer survivors. Women who had not been pregnant before their cancer diagnosis were half as likely to fall pregnant for the first time as other women, with 21 per cent conceiving after their diagnosis compared with 39 per cent in a control group. This means those women with cancer were about half as likely to fall pregnant for the first time as other women.

The study also found women diagnosed with cancer later on in the study period (2005-12) had better chances of pregnancy than those diagnosed earlier (1981-88).

Prof Anderson said, where appropriate, “options for fertility preservation should be discussed with the patient and her family”.