Pre-chemo egg freezing, anyone else?

[AshokanFarewell]

Hello,

Not quite sure if this is the right topic to post in but I just wondered if anyone else was in a similar position. I've been lurking a bit on this topic.

I am starting chemotherapy in a few weeks and I am currently on Gonal F and cetrotide injections so that I can have a batch of eggs harvested and frozen.

I am not really having any side effects. I have had some nausea but that may be unrelated as I have lots of other medical things going on too. I have about fifty follicles developing at the moment.

Is anyone else going through this at the moment or has anyone had success using frozen eggs after chemotherapy, or just in general. Feeling a bit lonely at the moment and rather out of my depth! :)

No experience at all of any of this but want to wish you the very best with all of it! Here's to a full recovery and several lovely children. Xxx

Thank you very much! That's very kind of you. I can't wait to have my own family one day and it is such a positive thing to focus on through the treatment :)

Well done for doing such a positive thing in difficult circumstances. Fifty follies is amazing. I wish you all the success in the world. I have two friends who have done this. One froze eggs but is yet to want to start a family and other successfully defrosted and had an embie transferred, it didn't take but this is not uncommon and could have worked in further attempts - that is, had she not got pregnant a month later naturally...

Thank you akuabadoll. It is good to hear that your friend did manage to get embryos from the frozen eggs, and fantastic that she managed to get pregnant naturally :)

They got seven eggs and only three of them were fully matured. I'm so disappointed. I wonder if they harvested too early. There's no guarantee that the chemotherapy will damage the eggs so fingers crossed :)

You are right, no guarantee at all. Three is not bad and I'm sure they did their best for you in terms of timing. Well done on getting through this part and try not to be disappointed, you have done everything you can. Good luck.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so ungrateful, I was just a little shocked at how few they got. I won't be starting a family for a few years yet anyway so no point worrying about it all now. Thank you for your support :)

hi. I went through chemotherapy myself a few years ago and am now just trying for a baby for the first time. I couldn't have any of my eggs harvested as I had the implant in and there wasn't enough time for my cycles to return to normal before my treatment needed to begin!! but I've been where u are in worrying about how the treatment will affect your fertility. my periods eventually came back after treatment so fingers crossed I still have working eggs!!
try to just focus on beating the cancer for now or you'll drive yourself mad worrying about the possible long term effects!!
hope things are going well for you!!xx

AshokanFarewell - I've not had this experience first hand but I used to work on a chemo ward and I know they said it was best to try to fertilise the eggs before freezing, if possible xxx

Hi roofio87, it's a shame you didn't have a chance to freeze eggs but it is reassuring that your periods returned and hopefully this means that you will soon conceive. I really hope all goes well for you, I will keep my fingers crossed :)

Thank you Soph80 but unfortunately fertilising the eggs before freezing was not a suitable option for my partner and I. The eggs are now frozen and the clinic have had some success fertilising and implanting frozen eggs so I'm hopeful that things will go well if I do need to use the frozen eggs.

The whole fertility issue is complicated by the fact that I probably have something called FAP which is a dominant genetic condition. My embryos will need to be tested for this before implantation. It always results in bowel cancer unless the colon and rectum are removed, and also increases the risks of some other forms of cancer.

It is only recently that a really good method for freezing eggs has become widely available. Up until a couple of years ago it was not really an option, so it is a great breakthrough in helping people like you.
As you say ideally you won't need them and I'm really sorry you didn't get more, but I'd say at the clinic I work at, we don't often get many eggs to freeze pre-chemo. I think if you are unwell it affects your response to the drugs etc.
Good luck with your treatment.

Hi freelancescientist. Yes it is fantastic that they've developed the techniques and I'm sure they will continue to improve the other techniques too.

The clinic did prepare me for the fact I may not get many eggs but then when I seemed to respond well and had so many follicles they were really pleased and said I should get lots of eggs. That was what surprised me really :) I suppose I should have done more research about it all before getting ahead of myself!

it is a strange thing ashokan I guess you can never tell. I did IVF recently and only had four follies which seemed really crappy, but I got four eggs and from there two grade A embies. Didn't get pregnant though. I guess one step good or bad doesn't dictate the next as much as we might think it would.
I didn't think you sounded ungrateful before btw, I'm sorry if I sounded like I did. I'm not surprised you were shocked, particularly with that number of follies.

It's so unpredictable but I suppose that's the nature of fertility anyway. I'm sorry to hear you weren't successful but all the best for the future, if you are having more cycles :)