What should I expect when I start trying to get pregnant?
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Regaining normalcy in your life after you have gone through cancer and cancer treatment is important for you, your partner, and your family. If you do have a partner, it is essential to resume the intimacy you may have lost during your illness and/or treatment and to continue with your family planning goals.
Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after one year of regular, unprotected intercourse. The chances of conceiving a pregnancy for young, healthy couples who are having appropriately-timed sex without the use of birth control is about 20% per month. A couple’s fertility starts to decline as they get older, beginning first in a woman's late 30s. A man’s fertility decreases with age as well, but not as early in his life.
Keeping this in mind, you and your partner should consider being tested to get a measure of your fertility. Information about where and how to do this is available on this site.
If fertility testing indicates you or your partner is infertile, or if you’ve had no success conceiving naturally after more than 12 months, you may need to start looking into alternative options for having a family. However, since cancer may impact your fertility, contact your infertility doctor sooner. Luckily, with the rapid advancement of technology, couples experiencing infertility have a number of choices. You can find out more about each of these choices by clicking on the links to the right.