Survived Childhood Leukemia - Now Trying to Get Pregnant

Ok.....This is my 1st post on this board.  It's nice to know that I have a place to come to ask questions.  I've always had questions about different things so now I can ask all of you.  This is one of them:)

My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for 4 years now.  No luck yet.  It's really made me think about my illness when I was younger.  If maybe that's the problem.  I had 3 1/2 years of Chemo.  Never had a problem since.  Thank goodness!  I'm just wondering if any of you have heard of there being problems with infertility later on in life after having cancer as a child.

Thanks so much and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you:)

Sorry, I don't have an answer regarding trying to start a family, although it brightens my day to hear your survivor story.  Just wanted to hear more about your experience with childhood leukemia.  There aren't enough of them out there.  My granddaughter, 6 yrs old, has been fighting ALL for nearly 9 months now.  They have just this past month allowed her to attend school so she must be improving.  But her counts go up and down constantly and her mood swings with cortisone are very difficult on her mother.  Do you remember any of those things during your treatment?

Happy to hear you are with us and good luck with that family!!!  You are a miracle.

Hi.  I'm new here too.  I'm not sure how much I can help, but I'll tell you what I know.  How old were you when you received chemotherapy?  Did you ever receive radiation?

My son is 10 and received both chemo and radiation for ALL all before he was 5 (he's in remission now, and actually considered "cured".  Doctors told us that since he has not reached puberty yet, none of that should affect his fertility.  Although he's a boy, I would assume it would be similar for you.

It's nice to hear a survivor story!

BTDT,

Thanks for the story on your son.  I can imagine your relief to hear the word "cured".  I pray my daughter and us hear those words about our grand daughter.  Again, I would love to hear more survivor stories.  It would be a great comfort to parents of sick children to know that this disease is consistently curable.

Michael

Hello from another childhood ALL survivor!  (right now my major role is as caregiver to my parents - Dad has cholangiocarcinoma and my Mom has bone cancer) but I am a survivor too!!!  I think that fact also encourages my parents!

Anyway, I was 13 when I was diagnosed and went through about 3 years of chemo; including 10 rounds of cranial radiation.  When I was 23, I had a check-up and my boyfriend came with me.  We learned that there was a strong possiblity that I couldn't have children, and if I could that my "window of time" was a lot shorter than normal.  The doctor said this was because of certain drugs I had been on during chemo.  I honestly cannot remember which of the drugs was the biggest "culprit" - although I think it might have been Cytoxin... I just cannot remember for sure.

We've been married now 10 years (he asked me to marry him the week after that check-up and we got married three months later!) and we are still childless.  Although I do know of other survivors that have gone on to be parents.  It really seems to depend on what type of chemo you took and what age you were when you were on meds.

Best of luck!

N

hi there,

i am also a survivor of childhood leukemia (ALL), when receiving treatments i remember the doctors telling my mom that there was a small chance i wouldn't be able to conceive, and that my chances would go up if i had relapsed. I think it depends on a lot of factors:

 -drugs used to treat your leukemia (donamyacin, methotrexate, etc.)

-your age at diagnoses

-the form of leukemia you had

-whether you received radiation or not

-whether you relapsed or not

-when you received treatments and the technology at the time

I wasn't too concerned about my fertility and me and my husband are now expecting our first child in April of 2009. 

I was diagnosed with ALL in March of 1993 at the age of 8, I have never received radiation, never relapsed, and have a list of the chemotherapy drugs i received. From there i've been doing research on long term side effects on the internet.

Congratulations on your recovery. I really hope all goes well and that you will be able to have children of your own. Consult an oncologist about your concerns and if you can remember the names of the chemotherapy drugs you received as a child, try to do some research on the longterm effects of these drugs and fertility.