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The Oncofertility Program at ���ϸ����� Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center offers young women and men personalized fertility-preservation counseling before and during cancer treatment. We also counsel people who have a high risk of developing cancer due to a genetic mutation, and cancer survivors about their family-building options after treatment.

We understand the challenges to fertility that a cancer diagnosis poses. Our personalized and comprehensive approach ensures you have the guidance and support you need while navigating fertility preservation.

Fertility Preservation for Cancer Patients

Fertility preservation may not be top of mind when you’re dealing with cancer. And not everyone is comfortable talking to their doctor about their reproductive health concerns. Often, people are not aware of their options—procedures ranging from egg freezing and sperm banking to new surgical techniques for preserving fertility and hormone function. Worries about pausing cancer treatment to pursue fertility procedures or paying for these procedures can also discourage many people from considering their future reproductive health.

The Oncofertility Program helps patients to overcome the emotional uncertainty and distress that can accompany a cancer diagnosis, especially when concerns about infertility arise. Oncofertility is a specialized field integrating cancer treatment with fertility planning. Through our program, we ensure that every patient with a cancer diagnosis has an opportunity to have an informed conversation about fertility preservation and access to both standard of care and innovative fertility-preserving procedures if they so desire. We also take time to help people navigate their insurance and determine eligibility for financial assistance.

How Cancer and Cancer Treatment Can Affect Fertility

Having cancer and the associated treatments are risk factors for infertility. The effects of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and other cancer treatments often depend on factors such as a patient’s age, type of cancer, and specific treatment plans.

For many people who have not started or completed their families, the possibility of infertility is unwelcome. That’s why we strive to help patients realize the life they dreamed of building before their cancer diagnosis.

Fertility Preservation for Females

There are several options for preserving female fertility. Depending on your needs and preferences, we can explore the following:

• egg and embryo freezing before cancer treatment
• ovarian tissue freezing to protect that tissue for future use
• ovarian suppression, to protect ovarian function during cancer treatment
• ovarian transposition, a fertility-sparing procedure in which the ovaries are permanently moved out of the radiation therapy field
• uterine transposition, a surgical procedure that moves the uterus and ovaries temporarily out of the radiation field during treatment

Fertility Preservation for Males

Our experts can advise you about options for male fertility preservation, including the following:

• testicular tissue freezing for future use
• sperm banking before cancer treatment
• electroejaculation, or EEJ, to assist in sperm collection
• testicular sperm extraction, or TESE, to extract sperm from testicular tissue

Our Fertility-Preservation Counseling

Whether you’re newly diagnosed, currently in treatment, a cancer survivor, or someone at high risk of cancer due to a genetic mutation, our Oncofertility Program guides you through the fertility-preservation process.

We counsel men and women of any age. This includes adolescents and young adults with a cancer diagnosis, parents of young children and teens, and people experiencing breast and other early-onset cancers.

A member of your medical oncology, radiation oncology, surgery, or clinical genetics team can refer you to our program. Within 24 to 48 hours of receiving the referral, our nurse navigator will call you. Consultations typically take place on the phone, but we can arrange an in-person visit in Manhattan or Brooklyn or on Long Island.

We provide personalized support tailored to your individual needs. Each counseling session differs and may include a discussion of the following topics:

• basic reproductive physiology
• cancer treatment risks to fertility
• fertility-preservation options
• costs of fertility-preserving procedures, insurance coverage, and potential philanthropic support
• your timeline for attempting pregnancy
• posttreatment family-building options
• posttreatment embryo selection for gene mutation carriers
• referral for fertility preservation

If you decide to pursue fertilization preservation, we refer you to a provider of reproductive care within our integrated system or a trusted partner in the community. We work closely with providers of reproductive medicine in Manhattan and on Long Island, including ���ϸ����� Langone Reproductive Specialists of New York and the ���ϸ����� Langone Fertility Center, and we maintain preferred relationships with other, unaffiliated fertility providers.

Where you receive fertility services is up to you, based on your personal preferences and insurance coverage. No matter what you decide, our team is here to help you navigate the process.

Contact Us

To learn more about the Oncofertility Program or to ask for a referral, talk to your cancer doctor.