Review. Fertility preservation for young female cancer patients.

Young female cancer patients are still being poorly counseled with regard to the negative impact of treatment on their fertility and on their options for fertility preservation. Today, many possibilities exist for fertility preservation, such as ovarian suppression with GnRH analogues, ovarian tissue cryopreservation, in vitro maturation or IVF after ovulation induction with aromatase inhibitors. A pregnancy after cancer treatment does not seem to limit the prognosis. This review focuses on both the effect of cancer treatments on fertility and on the various assisted-reproduction innovations that are available to provide the cancer patient with the option of future pregnancies. It is currently a time of uncertainty and revolution concerning the role of ovarian suppression and other fertility preservation measures in the management of early breast cancer, but developments in the near future promise to be very exciting.