Radiation Treatment and Fertility

Radiation to the breast has no effect on fertility. Yet if you want to become pregnant after treatment, let your radiation doctor know your plans.

If you're going to postpone any attempt to get pregnant until well after your treatment is finished, then radiation therapy should have no impact on your future fertility.

But if you really want to get pregnant in the future, and your doctor thinks chemotherapy may put you into early menopause, you may want to start fertility treatment BEFORE you start breast cancer treatment. This may involve collecting eggs, fertilizing them, and saving them for after treatment.

The eggs for this type of fertility treatment should be collected before radiation treatment starts. This is because eggs that are in the process of developing and ripening for ovulation may be affected by tiny amounts of radiation that scatter from the main treatment area (the breast).

Postponing radiation therapy for a few weeks to permit safe egg removal is unlikely to make your radiation therapy any less effective.

It's also unlikely that the tiny amount of radiation that may scatter from the breast will have any effect on the unripe eggs still stored within your ovaries. These are the eggs that will come out after treatment is over.