Chemotherapy is given to cancer patients to cure the disease, control the growth of cancer, and also to control the cancer when there is no other option left. It has many side effects. The drugs used in chemotherapy can also have an adverse effect on you fertility and sexual life. To know more about chemotherapy fertility, talk to your doctor or your nurse about the effects of chemotherapy.

There is a misnomer that if you undergo chemotherapy, you will never be able to have children. Not all the drugs used for chemotherapy treatment cause infertility. There are drugs with a high risk, medium risk and low risk. Your doctor will administer the drugs for your treatment after determining the kind of cancer that you have, how much it has spread in your body and many other things.

There are many factors that determine whether your chemotherapy will make you infertile. These are:

Age of the patient: Your ability to reproduce depends on your age. As you become old, your ability to reproduce becomes less. Women usually undergo menopause between the ages of 50 to 55. The production of ovaries reduces with age and subsequently stops when she reaches menopause. The younger you are the more are the chances you have to recover from your infertility after you undergo the chemotherapy cycles. If you are closer to the menopausal age, you have fewer chances to be able to bear children or have your menstrual cycle. So women who have crossed 40-45 years, it is very likely that your menstrual cycle might not happen at all, even if you recover from your cancer and other effects of chemotherapy.

In men, chemotherapy affects the lining of the testicles that are responsible for producing the sperms. So the production of sperm in the semen becomes very less, or it might stop altogether. So men can become impotent during the course of their treatment. This can be a temporary or a permanent, depending on the type of drug and the age of the patient. The recovery of the testicles might take several years.

Drugs used for chemotherapy: The drugs used in chemotherapy also determine whether you have become permanently infertile. Some chemotherapy drugs like Cytoxan, Procarbazine, Busulfan, Ifosfamide are likely are high risk drugs and are very likely to cause infertility. Other drugs like methotrexate and vincristine are more likely to cause a temporary damage to the fertility system. Thus the risk of infertility depends on the type of drug given to a patient, the age of the patient, and also the area that is subjected to radiation.

Women are asked not to plan a baby if they are undergoing chemotherapy, as chemotherapy can harm a fetus. They are advised to use birth control. Lactating mothers are not allowed to feed their babies as the drug can affect the baby too. If a man is about to undergo a treatment that involves a high risk drug, then he should consider banking his sperm before starting the chemotherapy treatment. After chemotherapy  treatment is over, he can always have kids. However, the patients should talk to their doctor before banking their sperms.

Effects on Chemotherapy on your sex life: Chemotherapy is likely to affect your sex life. Women might have a dry or an itchy vagina, bladder or vaginal infections, hot flashes, or irregular menstrual cycles. A person might simply not want to have sex because of the stress and fatigue caused by the drugs.

Talk to your doctor and your partner about your feelings and your concerns. Your doctor will give you advice as to how to cope with the effects of chemotherapy. You will need to talk to your doctor and ask him or her some relevant questions.

Before you start your chemotherapy treatment, have some of your doubts clarified by your doctor. Here are a few questions that you should ask:

• Why should I undergo this treatment?
• What are the side effects of this treatment?
• What should I do to relieve these side effects?
• If I have any problem, whom and when should I call?
• Can I conceive after the chemotherapy treatment? When will it be possible?
• When should we stop taking the birth control method?
• Can you refer me to an organization where i can talk to people with the similar disease?
• Will chemotherapy decrease my immune system?
• What food should I eat to recover from chemotherapy?
• Do you know of any fertility specialist who can guide me?

When you talk to your doctor about chemotherapy fertility, clarify all your doubts and if possible, also contact a help group who will counsel you about chemotherapy fertility. Cancer is curable, but its treatment can be quite stressful for most of the patients undergoing this treatment. When cancer is first detected in a person, it is hard to believe it. However, with the advent of modern techniques, cancer can be cured. The various options for curing cancer include surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy.