Chemotherapy drugs can reduce fertility, but different drugs have different effects. They can vary from having no effect on fertility to having a high chance of causing infertility. After the same type of chemotherapy, young women are more likely to get their fertility back than young men.
Drugs that are more likely to cause long-term (permanent) infertility include cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, busulphan, melphalan, lomustine (CCNU), chlorambucil and procarbazine – though other drugs not listed here may also affect some people.
The risk of infertility also depends on the dose or amount of the drug used in your treatment. High-dose treatment is more likely to cause infertility. You can talk to your cancer doctor or specialist nurse about this. It’s important to remember that many people have these drugs and their fertility isn’t affected.
young women
If your ovaries are damaged by chemotherapy, the number of eggs in the ovaries may be reduced. This can mean that the ovaries stop releasing eggs each month (an immediate menopause). Sometimes the ovaries will recover after the treatment and produce eggs again for a while, but you may have your menopause earlier than if you had not had chemotherapy.
Anyone likely to have an early menopause may want to decide whether or not to have children earlier than they would otherwise have done, as they will have less time in which they can get pregnant.
young men
Chemotherapy can stop the testes from producing sperm. In some young men this is temporary. After a few months or years the sperm will start to be produced again. However, with some types of chemotherapy drug, especially high-dose chemotherapy, there may be a risk of permanent infertility.
