As More Kids Survive Cancer, New Field Emerges To Preserve Their Fertility
Several hospitals around the U.S. are offering parents of some patients the option of taking steps to preserve their kids' ability to reproduce decades down the line.
Every year, nearly 16,000 children under the age of 19 are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. For those families, the first concern is survival. But as pediatric cancer survival rates increase, physicians are starting to think about those kids’ futures, including their fertility.
Now, several hospitals around the country are offering parents of some patients the option of taking steps to preserve those kids’ ability to reproduce decades down the line.
Danielle Morley, co-creator of the Onco-Fertility program at the Nemours Center for Cancer and Blood Disorder in Delaware, is doing just that.
