One in eight women in France is affected by the issue. Some are already pregnant when they learn that they are ill, others would like to have a baby after their treatment. And it is possible. It’s all a question of tailoring care.
When she learned that she had breast cancer at 35, Céline was far from thinking about pregnancy. It was her sister who convinced her to freeze her eggs, just in case. “At the time, I told him: but I don’t have a partner, it’s dead, I’ll never have a child. Leave me alone, forget me! I have to go into battle. ‘ And then afterwards, we sit down for two seconds and say to ourselves: yes, she’s right. We can still have children, even after 40 years. Maybe I’ll meet someone. We’ll see.”
Once operated and treated with chemotherapy, Céline was able to pause her treatment while she conceived her baby, but first, “I had to do two years of hormone therapye,” she explains.
“In the middle of all these ordeals, I met my partner and we wanted to plan with a little baby.”
Céline, diagnosed with breast cancer at 35at franceinfo
“I did lots of tests again to find out if there wasn’t something underlying that was hiding or developing slowly to be able to conceive a baby”, she specifies. In the end, Céline did not even need medically assisted procreation. She got pregnant naturally after a year. Today, she resumed her hormone therapy treatment.
Chemo is possible during pregnancy
The interruption of hormonal treatments does not lead to loss of chances, according to her doctor, Christelle Rousset-Jablonski, gynecologist at the anti-cancer center in Lyon. “Since this year, we have had the results of a study which evaluated a temporary cessation of this hormonal therapy after at least two years of taking it and with the idea of resuming after pregnancyshe argues. The first results are reassuring, that is to say that women who take this break do not have more recurrences than women who take it all at once.”
And then, there are also women who learn that they are sick when they are already pregnant. In this case, the treatment must be adapted: we cannot do radiotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted therapy, but operations or chemotherapy are possible because the chemo molecules used against breast cancer are not contraindicated. in case of pregnancy.
Pregnancy with or after cancer is possible: report by Anne-Laure Dagnet