Carrying a pregnancy after certain cancer diagnoses and treatment can carry certain risks. For example if you are on a hormonal treatment such as tamoxifen or long treatment with cancer drugs such as Gleevec, you cannot carry your child because of risk of fetal malformations. In such instances, a gestational carrier can be the solution. In other instances, chemotherapy might have caused organ malfunction like cardio-myopathy (weakness of heart muscle) again necessitating use if gestational carriers.
Unlike the general belief, pregnancy does not appear to increase risk of breast cancer recurrence. Until now, no study showed that women with early stage breast cancer who conceived after completing treatment and conceive are more likely to have cancer recurrence. Same hold true both for lymph node-positive and –negative cancers. Likewise in women with BRCA-mutations, though the data is more limited, again the impact of pregnancy appears to be similar to that of in women without genetic cancer. Nevertheless, safety of pregnancy has to be further studied in BRCA-mutation carriers as there maybe differences between those who carry BRCA1 vs. BRCA2 mutations.
Using our extensive experience with the fertility and reproductive issues of cancer survivors we can do a thorough risk evaluation for you and jointly decide on the best route to take in your case.