Cancer patients in Alabama 'being robbed of the choice to build a family after treatment'

CHICAGO --- In the aftermath of Alabama Supreme Court’s in vitro fertilization ruling, the state’s reproductive-age women with cancer, who face a high likelihood of future infertility, “are losing the standard-of-care option to build a family following their necessary medical treatments,” said Northwestern Medicine fertility preservation expert Dr. Kara Goldman.

“Reproductive-age patients with cancer have few effective options to preserve their future fertility, and it is unfathomable to take one such option away from this already vulnerable population,” said Goldman, an associate professor of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and director of fertility preservation at Northwestern Medicine. “A profound consequence of this ruling — a ruling based merely on religious belief and without scientific merit —is an unacceptably high risk of infertility for patients with cancer and other fertility-threatening conditions.”

Dr. Goldman is available for interviews with the media. Contact Kristin Samuelson at ksamuelson@northwestern.edu to schedule an interview. 

Traveling across state lines for care is ‘unacceptable’

“Reproductive-aged people with cancer should be adequately counseled about the impacts of their treatment on fertility and offered fertility preservation as part of comprehensive cancer care, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine,” Goldman said. “For those suggesting that patients can merely travel across state lines to access fertility preservation care, or that patients can consider alternative methods of fertility preservation, these substitutes are both logistically and medically unacceptable.

“Patients with cancer have only a brief window to preserve fertility prior to beginning their life-saving cancer treatment, and in most cases, they begin their fertility preservation treatment almost immediately upon learning of a cancer diagnosis. Traveling is not an option due to patients’ medical complexity, the requirement to remain close to their medical team for specialized care, and due to cost.”

Embryo vs. oocyte cryopreservation

“The standard of care for fertility preservation is to freeze either mature oocytes (eggs) or embryos, but there is tremendous nuance in this decision-making,” Goldman said. “Patients must be thoughtfully counseled about each approach, and in many circumstances the best option for a patient is to freeze embryos. These are decisions that must remain between patients and their physicians, without interference from those without scientific knowledge.”