Non-traditional family building planning

Abstract

Fertility patients frequently report living in a binary world, one divided between the fertile and the infertile. However, adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors who later learn they will have difficulty conceiving or bearing children have similar reactions to their diagnosis, but with some marked differences, as the injustices of their reality are much more complex. They frequently feel betrayed because the very treatments used to save their lives may be the ones that have caused them to be unable to have biogenetic children of their own, unable to fulfill their need for generativity and their longing for a return to normalcy [1]. In 1999, it was predicted that by the time this book is published [2012] one in every 250 young adults would be a survivor of cancer [2]. Although the ability to have biogenetically related offspring has been the topic of countless articles and books published in the area of reproductive health and medicine, less than half of adolescent and young adult cancer survivors can recall their oncologist or other members of their medical team discussing fertility related issues, including fertility preservation, prior to commencement of treatment [3-10]. Of those who did remember their physicians providing facts, advice, details, or statistics about fertility, many believed the information they received was inadequate and presented in an untimely manor [8-13]. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.