How to Conceive after Cervical Cancer

Whether a woman can conceive or not after cervical cancer depends on the stage of cervical cancer at which it was diagnosed and treated and the procedures carried out to treat it.

If the uterus and a part of the cervix remain and the reproductive organs have not been made sterile with a therapy, the woman may have a chance of conceiving a child. A woman in the early stages of cervical cancer may undergo trachelectomy, a medical procedure by virtue of which a portion of the cervix is kept intact to help preserve fertility and offer an opportunity for conception.

• Sit with your physician and discuss the various options for treating cervical cancer. If you have had hysterectomy to remove the cancer, you will not be allowed to carry a baby because your uterus would have been removed. If you had been through radiation or any other therapy that made you infertile, you will not be able to use conventional methods of conception.

• Get an appointment with a fertility specialist if you had frozen eggs before the treatment, but have retained the uterus. Procedures for conception such as in-vitro fertilisation can be easily used with frozen eggs and frozen or fresh sperm.

• Discuss about surrogacy with your doctor. If you do not have a uterus anymore, but have frozen eggs, you may open yourself to egg donation or have a child through a surrogate mother. The surrogate will carry the embryo through the pregnancy term.

• If you have your uterus and have not gone through chemotherapy or radiation that keeps you sterile, you may conceive the way every woman does. If you went through any procedure such as a radical trachelectomy or come biopsy, your cervix may be weak or not strong enough to sustain pregnancy. At such a juncture, you should be given special attention or monitored by an obstetrician due to the heightened risk of a premature labour or miscarriage.

Warnings and Tips

• Procedures such as cone biopsy do not really have an impact on the fertility of a woman, but may increase the risk of premature birth and miscarriage.

• Before undergoing any treatment, talk with your doctor about the various options by virtue of which you can preserve your fertility. Allow such discussion to take place as soon as you are diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer may give you the impression that you can never be pregnant again, but do not lose hope. Follow a healthy lifestyle, quit unhealthy habits and you will soon be able to get pregnant.

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