Diana Kwon in The Scientist:
Allison Rosen was 32 years old when she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. At the time, she was single, but she knew that one day, she’d want to have children. However, her treatment, which would involve pelvic radiation, would very likely affect her fertility.
Following a detailed discussion with her oncologist and care team, Rosen decided to delay her cancer treatment for a few weeks to harvest and freeze her eggs. But the day before the extraction, Rosen started bleeding profusely and was taken to the emergency room. There, she and her doctor decided that her cancer treatment couldn’t wait. They’d start the next day, meaning she’d have to abandon the plans to cryopreserve her eggs. “I thought, if I’m not alive, what is the purpose of having these eggs?” said Rosen, today a colorectal cancer survivor and patient advocate. “It was one of the most difficult decisions I had to make.”
More here.
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