Although some teenagers and young adults become infertile following cancer treatment, physicians are hesitant to discuss options to preserve fertility with patients, according to a new Florida study.
In their discussions with 24 pediatric oncologists, researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center found that some physicians did not want to bring up the topic for fear of worrying their patients about the expense of egg and sperm storage. Other doctors cited a lack of appropriate resources and guidelines to help their patients with this difficult decision.
Several doctors said they felt the topic was not one to bring up when patients' and their parents' primary concern was surviving cancer, noted study co-authors Gwendolyn Quinn, Ph.D., and Susan Vadaparampil, Ph.D.
Their study appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
"About half of the physicians said the cancer diagnosis is such a shock that an issue like fertility is often put on the back burner," Quinn said.
Talking with young cancer patients about fertility can be a challenge, in part because physicians are used to speaking with teens in a "jocular manner" in an attempt to "ease the pain of an ill child," the researchers found. Yet, this manner of speaking might not be the best way to broach the sensitive topic of fertility with the patients, they said.
Moreover, the parents of children with cancer "tend to be more focused on treatment options and survival, and discussions of fertility often do not arise," the researchers noted.
Physicians who participated in the study "commented that the discussion could be awkward because the parents and the patient are essentially discussing reproduction and sexuality, with parents making decisions about the reproductive future of their child," Quinn said.