I don't know that any of these options are right for us-what if we choose to do nothing?

There are many valid reasons why you and your partner may decide to do nothing about fertility before treatment. Maybe your partner’s doctor wants him or her to start treatment right away, and you just don’t have the time to do anything. It could be that your partner wants to focus on beating the cancer, and he or she wants to start treatment as soon as possible. Whatever the reason, there are many people who decide to do nothing about their fertility and focus first on getting well and choose not to pursue fertility preservation.

The truth is, not all cancer treatments are the same and each carries different risks of causing infertility in the future. Currently, for women, the chances of having a spontaneous pregnancy in the 3-6 years after treatment range from 5-28%, depending on their age, cancer type, and treatment. For men, there is a wide variation in the length of time it can take to return to normal levels of sperm production and fertility. For some men, it may occur within a year; for others, it may take up to 10 years or even longer, if at all.

Fertile Hope, an organization dedicated to providing reproductive information, support, and hope to cancer patients and survivors at risk of infertility, has developed a customized Risk Calculator to assess your partner’s individual level of fertility risk. The Risk Calculator takes into account your partner’s gender, cancer type, and treatment regimen to determine the risk of infertility in the form of a percentage. This information may be helpful to you both as you decide whether or not to pursue fertility preservation options before your partner begins cancer treatment.