One of the hardest things about this whole Cancer trip is the fertility fiasco. On top of everything else you are going thru, trying to keep your breast, make the right decisions, read pathology reports and deal with Doctor attitude, they tell you, "Oh and how old are you....? Did you want to have children?". Suddenly the gift of motherhood, that I must admit, I seriously took for granted, is swinging in your face by a dangling thread. I think I cried for a whole day straight. I took trips to the bathroom and to check facebook, but all the announcements of people having babies, made me cry again. Seriously? I knew I should have just moved to the top of the mountain and stayed away from cell phones, pesticides, smog, acid rain, birth control pills and tampons, damn-it, how has my life come to this? But it has.
Chemotherapy is a no joke, invasive, take no prisoners kind of therapy that kills cancer and a whole bunch of other things your body needs like hair follicles and little eggs that could one day be....your children. Yes, I know. You can just adopt. If I hear that anymore from people who already have children, I am going to scream. It is true, yes, I can adopt, I could also just get a puppy or raise foster children, or be a clown at children's birthday parties. But just realize if I do those things I don't get to participate in carrying a child in my belly for 9 months, birthing or morning sickness. Not to mention breast feeding. And I don't take this lightly. It's simply not the same, maybe equal in love and the experience of being a mother, but its not the same experience. And quite frankly, damnit, I want the big belly one. Call me selfish.
The good news is there are ways around this. You could just not take chemo, go the natural route and take your chances on the cancer not spreading. There are miracles out there.Thats an individual decision that I really can't say is good or bad, but for me, I would be up at night tossing and turning in cancer sweat. Or you can harvest and freeze your eggs before the chemo therapy starts, and if you can't get pregnant after chemo, (some women HAVE gotten pregnant after chemo) you at least have some frozen eggs as back up. I chose this route. My entire life I have imagined that one day I would have a child. I am not loosing that chance to breast cancer. Just to know I am doing what I can to keep the possibility of this dream alive, is the least I can do. I am only 34, I have another at least, 6 years, to be a mother.
Paying for this harvesting is a different story. Harvesting and freezing eggs can cost up to $15,000 dollars! And most insurance's do not cover it. This definitely needs to be changed and put into some sort of breast cancer clause, amendment, whatever, change it! If you are like me and at age 34 have not put together a significant savings plan, this amount of money for something so precious, after not working for a time to deal with breast cancer, can be stressful to come up with in a short amount of time, to say the least. You must harvest your eggs before you begin chemotherapy, because after or during is just too late. And because doctors are in such a hurry to get that cancer out of your body, they want you to move fast.... Fortunately I found a great non-profit called Fertile Hope. They are part of the Livestrong Foundation and provide low cost fertility options for women whose cancer treatments may render them infertile. www.fertilehope.org
Fertile Hope donates the high cost fertility medicines and also works with a number of doctors and fertility clinics to bring about low cost treatment. I am paying about $5000 for mine and working with a top notch fertility doctor, Dr. Oktay, who has been on a number of cancer websites giving advice about fertility options. This has been a life saver! Literally. The only issue is, the medications cause estrogen levels to rise, and being that I have estrogen positive cancer, its not the best thing for me. Fortunately, Dr. Oktay will give me a drug called Fumera (Its probably spelled wrong) which will help bring my estrogen levels down and is usually covered by insurance and if not, is like $50-$100 dollars for 13 pills. Phewwwww. I was worried my $5,000 was turning into $8,000. All my office visits, anesthesia for the day of the procedure, the sonnegram and the actual procedure are covered. The only extra is a $25/month storage fee, so the little guys stay frozen and well protected. Right now, I am feeling very grateful that there are people in the world who create programs like this to help others.....now...to come up with $5,000 dollars......angels conspiring....all will be.
Chemotherapy is a no joke, invasive, take no prisoners kind of therapy that kills cancer and a whole bunch of other things your body needs like hair follicles and little eggs that could one day be....your children. Yes, I know. You can just adopt. If I hear that anymore from people who already have children, I am going to scream. It is true, yes, I can adopt, I could also just get a puppy or raise foster children, or be a clown at children's birthday parties. But just realize if I do those things I don't get to participate in carrying a child in my belly for 9 months, birthing or morning sickness. Not to mention breast feeding. And I don't take this lightly. It's simply not the same, maybe equal in love and the experience of being a mother, but its not the same experience. And quite frankly, damnit, I want the big belly one. Call me selfish.
The good news is there are ways around this. You could just not take chemo, go the natural route and take your chances on the cancer not spreading. There are miracles out there.Thats an individual decision that I really can't say is good or bad, but for me, I would be up at night tossing and turning in cancer sweat. Or you can harvest and freeze your eggs before the chemo therapy starts, and if you can't get pregnant after chemo, (some women HAVE gotten pregnant after chemo) you at least have some frozen eggs as back up. I chose this route. My entire life I have imagined that one day I would have a child. I am not loosing that chance to breast cancer. Just to know I am doing what I can to keep the possibility of this dream alive, is the least I can do. I am only 34, I have another at least, 6 years, to be a mother.
Paying for this harvesting is a different story. Harvesting and freezing eggs can cost up to $15,000 dollars! And most insurance's do not cover it. This definitely needs to be changed and put into some sort of breast cancer clause, amendment, whatever, change it! If you are like me and at age 34 have not put together a significant savings plan, this amount of money for something so precious, after not working for a time to deal with breast cancer, can be stressful to come up with in a short amount of time, to say the least. You must harvest your eggs before you begin chemotherapy, because after or during is just too late. And because doctors are in such a hurry to get that cancer out of your body, they want you to move fast.... Fortunately I found a great non-profit called Fertile Hope. They are part of the Livestrong Foundation and provide low cost fertility options for women whose cancer treatments may render them infertile. www.fertilehope.org
Fertile Hope donates the high cost fertility medicines and also works with a number of doctors and fertility clinics to bring about low cost treatment. I am paying about $5000 for mine and working with a top notch fertility doctor, Dr. Oktay, who has been on a number of cancer websites giving advice about fertility options. This has been a life saver! Literally. The only issue is, the medications cause estrogen levels to rise, and being that I have estrogen positive cancer, its not the best thing for me. Fortunately, Dr. Oktay will give me a drug called Fumera (Its probably spelled wrong) which will help bring my estrogen levels down and is usually covered by insurance and if not, is like $50-$100 dollars for 13 pills. Phewwwww. I was worried my $5,000 was turning into $8,000. All my office visits, anesthesia for the day of the procedure, the sonnegram and the actual procedure are covered. The only extra is a $25/month storage fee, so the little guys stay frozen and well protected. Right now, I am feeling very grateful that there are people in the world who create programs like this to help others.....now...to come up with $5,000 dollars......angels conspiring....all will be.
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