NBC6’s Sheli Muñiz spoke with Dr. Carolina Sueldo, a fertility specialist, about the conversation surrounding fertility and breast cancer.
Throughout October, NBC6 continues to bring attention to breast cancer awareness. With cases on the rise among younger women, it is a topic, survivors say, is not discussed enough.
Doctors say preserving fertility is now helping women’s path to parenthood.
“When a patient is sitting in a doctor’s office and hears the word ‘cancer’, they really don’t hear anything else after that, so to talking about fertility preservation or future family-building, they're really not prepared to tackle that physically or emotionally in that moment,” said Fertility specialist, Dr. Carolina Sueldo.
Dr. Carolina Sueldo is a double-board certified fertility specialist and founder of Ceibo Fertility Center in Fort Lauderdale. She said it’s a conversation she is having with women diagnosed with cancer -- a type of technology that wasn’t readily available or talked about even 15 years ago.
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“We know that any chronic illness can be a risk factor for infertility in the future so it would make sense that cancer would fall in that bucket. But separate from that, what we worry about is the exposure to chemo and radiation,” said Dr. Sueldo.
“At the time, I was single and I wanted to get married I wanted to have a family,” said Lorena Bolling, who was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer at 35. The diagnosis forced her to think of something she hadn’t thought about.
“It all happened so quickly. I never thought about preserving my eggs even at 35, I just thought I’ll get pregnant later in life,” Bolling explained.
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She then worked with Dr. Sueldo to freeze her eggs.
Dr. Sueldo said it’s a multidisciplinary approach working closely with the oncologists who are treating the cancer.
Fertility preservation involves either egg freezing, sperm freezing, or creating embryo, but for cancer patients, there are other factors to consider.
“Age, pregnancy history, the type of cancer, so if the cancer or aggressiveness of cancer how quickly are they willing to start treatment,” Dr. Sueldo advised.
The process of egg freezing can roughly take two to three weeks and done before cancer treatment and while it’s not a guarantee, Dr. Sueldo says for patients under 35 years old with a reasonable number of eggs, the likelihood of a healthy birth is well over 50%.
Bolling said the egg freezing process is arduous and exhausting, both mentally and physically, and involves injecting hormone shots into your abdomen to help the follicles and eggs grow.
Nearly five years later, Lorena is now married and in the process of building her family with her husband whom she met during chemotherapy.
“He just grabbed my hand, and said 'You know what? I think you’re going to be okay,' and he became my husband,” said Bolling.
Preserving fertility is done for noncancer patients as well.
Dr. Sueldo said for those women with hormone concerns, there is now more robust data that the short-term exposure to the hormones during fertility treatments doesn’t increase a patient’s risk long-term and that they have ways to keep levels low through treatment.
