Celine Dion is Pregnant - What Does this Have to Do with Cancer?

Celine Dion and her husband, René Angélil, recently announced that they are pregnant with their second child, conceived with the help of fertility doctors in New York. Her husband is a cancer survivor and years ago there were alleged reports of him banking sperm and/or them banking embryos before he started his cancer treatments. Regardless of how they go here, I am thrilled to see another survivor and his wife build the family of their dreams!

Do you have a story to share?

Cancer & Fertility in People Magazine

I was thrilled to see the story about cancer and fertility in People magazine this week!

The story profiles Chris Biblis, a cancer survivor and new dad. Thanks to his mom's advice, Chris banked his sperm prior to chemo and radiation when he was 16 - 22 years ago - and he now has a bounching baby girl, Stella. Chris' case is only one of three documented using sperm that is more than 20 years old, which addresses one of the top questions we receive: how long can my sperm (or eggs or embryos or ovarian tissue) be frozen?

Chris is quoted in the article saying: "I'm the luckiest person!" I feel the same way! Anyone else out there with a story like this to share?

Who Knew That You Can FedEx Sperm?!

What would you do if you were a young man diagnosed with cancer today and told that your treatments would render you infertile? Look for a sperm bank, right? What if you lived in one of the states in the US where a sperm bank doesn’t exist? Or, what if you needed to start chemo immediately and you couldn't leave the hospital? Historically, these scenarios meant that you couldn’t bank your sperm. Now there is the Live:On kit – thanks to a partnership between Fertile Hope, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Cryogenic Laboratories, Inc. Yes, the Live:On kit allows men (and mature boys) to FedEx their sperm to the sperm bank! While slightly less effective than banking at an on-site clinic (approximately 10% less motility (aka speed) has been seen), it is far better than the alternative – not banking and forgoing your best option for having a biological child after cancer. It gets better – the kit is free for nurses to order and hand out at cancer centers. So, please tell me, how do we get the word out about it and make sure the kit is available in every cancer center in the country (on a tight non-profit budget!)?

Lance Armstrong Conceives Naturally 10+ Years After Testicular Cancer – Against All Odds or Normal?

Fertile Hope has been inundated with questions since the reports by the media that Lance Armstrong conceived naturally more than 10 year after his treatment for testicular cancer, and after using his banked sperm with in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive three children. The news is incredibly hopeful, but also confusing. Do cancer treatments affect fertility permanently? How long does it take for sperm production to come back? Should patients still bank sperm? We took these questions and more to our Medical Advisory Board and published the answers in our online newsletter. I’d love to know what you think. Healthcare professionals – will this change if/how you talk about sperm banking with cancer patients? Cancer patients and survivors – will you still bank? How long will you keep banked sperm? How often will you get your sperm counts checked? My list of questions is endless. Please, tell us what this means to you.