Adoption or Infertility Treatment after Cancer

A diagnosis of cancer threatens not only your life, but also your plans for children after successful treatment.  Can you adopt if you’ve been treated for cancer in the past?  Can you go through fertility treatment if you’ve had cancer?  Should you? Join our guests Gina Shaw, cancer survivor, mom through birth and adoption after cancer, and author of Having Children After Cancer; Dr.  Irene Su, Assistant Professor of Reproductive Medicine University of California, San Diego, a reproductive endocrinologist and epidemiologist studying reproductive outcomes in young female cancer patients, and the assistant director of the in the Oncofertility Consortium; and Elizabeth Jurenovich, Executive Director of Abrazo Adoption Associates in San Antonio, Texas and a Certified Professional Open Adoption Practitioner who has talked with many birth mothers considering placing with families where either the mother or father has been treated for cancer.  More important, she is a breast cancer and thyroid cancer survivor and underwent treatment during one pregnancy and gave birth to a second child post treatment.

Hit the Highlights
  • Should you attempt fertility treatment if you have had cancer?
  • Is it safe to get pregnant after being successfully treated for cancer?
  • Does cancer treatment affect fertility?
  • Does cancer treatment increase the chance of having a child with birth defects?
  • Will pregnancy after cancer make it more likely that the cancer will reoccur?
  • Will infertility treatment after cancer make it more likely that the cancer will reoccur?
  • Is there a risk that cancer will return during pregnancy?
  • What happens if your cancer reoccurs while you are pregnant?
  • How long should you wait after cancer treatment before you try to get pregnant?
  • Are women who have had cancer treatment more likely to give birth pre-term?
  • What should you do if you will have to stop treatment in order to get pregnant?
  • Does cancer treatment make it more likely that a woman will enter early menopause?
  • How do you find a reproductive endocrinologist that is knowledgeable about cancer?
  • Third party reproduction after cancer.
  • Can you adopt if you have had cancer?
  • How is cancer handled on the medical form that is required for adoption?
  • Do adoption agencies have a specific policy on how long someone has to be out of treatment before they apply to adopt?
  • What countries are open for cancer survivors for international adoption?
  • Do birth mothers choose an adoptive couple who has had cancer?
  • When should you tell the potential birth mother that you have been treated for cancer?
  • Should you disclose your cancer in your adoptive parent profile?
  • Should you tell the birth mother that you have had cancer?

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