The article stated that a charity, Breast Cancer Care wants all women with breast cancer referred to a fertility expert at diagnosis. Without any disrespect to breast cancer ladies, I would like to add that many womb, and other gynaecological cancer patients don’t seem to be getting any fertility advice either.
We at WCSUK are aware that many of the younger ladies who come to us have been given little if any information about fertility and this can have a devastating effect on them.
Having to deal with a womb cancer diagnosis is bad enough but to them find out that the treatment, which usually involves a hysterectomy (and possibly chemo and/or radiotherapy) plunges you into sudden menopause is something that many younger women especially find hard to deal with.
The emotional and psychological side effects are often overlooked and the long term damage this causes is often very hard for the women to deal with.
Even women who were post-menopausal when diagnosed often find it hard to deal with these issues so it must be so much harder for the younger ladies.
There is very little advice and support available for these women and that is something that needs to change. We know that some women have been lucky and had some very good support but sadly it is not like that for everyone. We would like to see fertility advice and emotional support available across the board for all women, regardless of age.
It is not good enough to just deal with the cancer and not the side effects of everything a cancer diagnosis brings with it
xx Kaz xx