Young cancer patients advised to preserve fertility before chemo
TORONTO — When Kelly Knee was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 35, she chose not to have her eggs preserved prior to fertility-damaging chemo because, as she saw it, her family was complete.
“At the time I was married and we had four boys, so we were finished having a family,” she said from her home in Torbay, NL. “And when you’re going through cancer, you’re in survival mode and all you’re thinking of is ‘I have to get this chemo.’”
Knee, who had surgery in spring 2014 to remove her left breast before starting chemo, had been told the powerful drugs would likely put her into menopause and bring her reproductive years to an end.
She was prepared for that. But a year later, her marriage ended and she subsequently began dating another man. Then in October 2015, Knee discovered she was pregnant.