Having a child after breast cancer improves survival

This is joyous news for young women who do not yet have children and have been diagnosed with breast cancer. If they have a desire to have children, they can have eggs frozen before starting treatment for breast cancer. Many young women do this because chemotherapy can reduce their chances of fertility by 30 to 60%. In the past, young women with breast cancer were advised to put away their desire to have children for good. After all, most breast cancers are hormone-sensitive, and during pregnancy the body produces extra female hormones. It was feared that such a hormone shot in pregnancy could cause the cancer to flare up. Those fears turned out to be completely unfounded. For women who still desire to have children, a breast cancer history is not a risk, either to their health or the health of their child.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, add to that*. From more than 5,000 women, they analyzed data kept on the Scottish Cancer Registry. Their research confirms that the survival rates of women who had a child after their breast cancer treatment are similar to those of women who stopped having a child. To their surprise, women who had had breast cancer at a very young age and had their first child after treatment even had slightly better survival rates. Survival improved especially when pregnancy followed within five years of the cancer.

A bright spot for women facing breast cancer at a young age and wishing for children. And by extension for all women with breast cancer and a desire to have children. It is totally okay for your health when you get pregnant after treatment for breast cancer.

*AndersonR. Motherhood after breast cancer doesn't lower survival chances. Study results reassuring for women wanting children. 38th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.