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Fertility preservation is a series of medical procedures aimed at helping to achieve a pregnancy in the future.

These techniques are performed in women or men with a disease (e.g. cancer or severe autoimmune disease) before starting treatment which may be dangerous for their ovaries or testicles, and may alter their reproductive capacity. These processes include conservative surgical techniques and assisted reproductive techniques, such as egg freezing.

The objective of these techniques is to protect the sperm, eggs, embryos or ovarian tissue from the advance of time or treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy (gonadotoxicity).

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Give them a message of confidence. These are very simple techniques that do not add much complication for the patients.

Dolors Manau Gynaecologist

GONADOTOXICITY

Gonadotoxic treatments are those which may damage the ovaries with certain drugs or agents. The most common are chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

To help cure a woman of a disease (often cancer or some serious autoimmune or digestive disease), she may need gonadotoxic treatment. These agents may have different, very complex mechanisms, but all can accelerate the process of loss of follicles from the ovaries; even exhausting them and resulting in menopause. The extent of ovarian damage depends mainly on the type of agent used, the total dose administered and the patient’s age. Due to this high probability of damage to the ovaries, it is essential to assess the patient before starting any treatment. This assessment is carried out in specialist units, which provide women with good fertility preservation advice, so the best treatment can be chosen from among different possible options.