When we first figured out that baby-making wasn’t in the cards for me, my pediatric oncologist would always remind me that, “with so many advances in science, who knows what will be available to you once you are ready to start a family.”
In those days, 12-year old, optimistic me always assumed that cloning, if anything, would be the answer.
Between now and then, several assisted reproductive techniques were developed, one of which we have been able to utilize (hopefully successfully. I’ll tell you as soon as we know).
But now, in 2008, the ability to clone human cells is back …read more

You already know that I love the organization called Fertile Hope.
Fertile Hope is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing reproductive information, support and hope to cancer patients and survivors whose medical treatments present the risk of infertility.
Fertile Hope helped me realize that there were options available to me, even though I spent my entire adult life assuming I was infertile and that was that. Had Fertile Hope existed when I was just beginning my cancer treatments twenty years ago, I would have even more fertility options open to me.
Luckily, Fertile Hope exists now. And it has joined forces with …read more

Sounds like the name of a secret society or a collaboration of sinister characters one might find watching reruns of Alias or the X-Files. It is, in fact, a bold new initiative, funded by the National Institutes of Health, organized by Northwestern University that aims to protect the fertility of women who are undergoing radiation or chemotherapy.
Teresa Woodruff’s statement on www.kaisernetwork.org was music to my ears:
 
When a woman is diagnosed with cancer, the first priority is to save her life, Teresa Woodruff, chief of the Feinberg School’s new fertility preservation division, said. She added that although most women will survive, …read more