Having Children After Cancer: How to Make Informed Choices Before and After Treatment and Build the Family of Your Dreams

• Understand how different cancers can affect fertility
• Identify which treatments―chemo, radiation, and surgery―can potentially impair your fertility
• Discuss fertility-sparing treatment options with your doctor
• Select the fertility preservation method that’s right for you—from freezing eggs, embryos, and sperm to preserving ovarian tissue
• Analyze the chances of getting pregnant—using natural methods and with in vitro fertilization
• Determinethe best time to get pregnant (and which drug therapies to avoid while doing so)
• Have a healthy post-cancer pregnancy
• Navigate surrogacy and what to tell prospective candidates about your medical history
• Consider adoption and learn about survivor-friendly adoption programs and countries
• Find sample medical letters and other insurance-company red-tape busting information
• Think through the implications of mother- and fatherhood after cancer
• Figure out how to talk to your children about the big C

GINA SHAW, a health and medical writer, was newly married and trying for a baby when—at age thirty-six—she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, seven years later, she’s a survivor and proud mother of three children, both adopted and biological. Gina chronicled her journey through breast cancer for Redbook in a five-part diary series. She won the Society of Professional Journalists’ award for a WebMD series and the Association of Women in Communications’ Clarion Award for another Redbook series, “The Fertility Diaries.” Her articles have also been published by Ladies’ Home Journal, Fitness, and Woman’s Day. She lives with her husband and children in Montclair, New Jersey.