My fridge looks like a scene from Breaking Bad!

Just cooking up a storm...

So... where do I begin?

If it isn't bad enough that you've been diagnosed with cancer and you have to go through chemotherapy and all that, then they tell you it can make you infertile...great! One of the first things I thought about after my first few appointments before my confirmed diagnosis was my fertility and that if my chemotherapy caused infertility then I would want to get my eggs frozen just in case. I am aware that not every single type of chemotherapy causes infertility and I have been told with ABVD that my chances of conceiving naturally are still positive, as Lymphoma Action conducted a study which showed that women under 35 who had ABVD chemotherapy had complete recovery of their hormone levels one year after treatment. However there is a possibility that ABVD is not successful and that I will have to change to a different type of chemotherapy called BEACOPP. BEACOPP is a harsher type of chemotherapy and the same study showed that women treated with BEACOPP were much more likely to have irreversible changes in hormone levels and an early menopause. Five of the seven participants treated with BEACOPP had not seen any recovery in hormone levels 3 years after treatment therefore I did not want to take the risk and wanted to freeze my eggs. 

Throughout the past few months, I have spoken to a number of girls who have been diagnosed with lymphoma and also those that are now in remission. They were not offered fertility treatment. I am beyond shocked that it is not discussed or thought about by the doctors, as fertility is such an important matter. I recently was asked by my local newspaper about my story and they did an article on raising awareness of fertility and cancer in young woman: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/health/a-young-st-annes-woman-diagnosed-with-lymphoma-urges-women-to-think-about-freezing-their-eggs-as-she-launches-her-blog-living-with-larry-1-9912409?fbclid=IwAR0ld9gRXLKujeOPxNSYyp1eGa-TRB_1a2OFkq92lLthV7hek1CldSUdO8A. I am hoping that my article has been able to raise awareness to others.

Fast forward to my first appointment at The Christie . My Consultant, Nurse and I had the important discussion of fertility. As I have mentioned, I had already thought about and wanted to freeze my eggs. Fortunately, Christie's have a great relationship with Saint Mary's hospital in Manchester, the first fully funded IVF unit in the UK and whom are leading specialists on fertility. The fertility process for myself took about 2 weeks so it did delay my treatment however I was happy to delay it with the consent from my consultant.

Once transferred to Saint Mary's, I met with a nurse who discussed what the fertility process entails and a lot of paperwork that needs to be signed such as if I die, am I happy for my eggs to be donated for training purposes, consenting to my eggs being kept at Manchester and how long I want to store them for which is 55 years. The process aims to grow the follicles in the ovaries to produce more eggs so when they harvest the eggs, there is a large amount:

• 2 injections daily for 10 days to 2 weeks. The injections, menopur & cetrotide,  sub cutaneous had to be done at 8:30am every day (including my birthday!). My amazing mum did my injections for me and they were pretty painless however I was lucky enough that my mum prepared the injections for me. I was also fairly fortunate with the side effects and just had some stomach ache and bloating. 
• Regular blood tests to check hormone levels. These blood tests had to be done in Manchester in the morning to show your hormone levels and to ensure that you were reacting well to the injections. 
• Ultrasound scans. The scans, also had to be conducted in the morning,  to show how the ovaries are reacting to the treatment. The scans are internal ones where they put an ultrasound into your ovaries...lovely I know! 
• Follow up consultations after tests to discuss the next steps. Ideally, they want the follicles to grow to between 16-18mm as this is the ideal size and the scans can show the growth.

After around 10 days, I was called back to Manchester Royal for my egg collection. Due to the pain in my chest and history of asthma, It was decided that I was to be put under general anaesthetic and to  be fast asleep for the procedure so that they could monitor my breathing and deal with any pain that I may experience.  Not everyone will be offered this, I know a few girls that received heavy sedation for the procedure and didn't feel any pain.. After waking up an hour later a bit groggy, having some food and drink and passing urine, I was allowed home and I only had a slight stomach-ache for a few days. Following on from the collection, I had to continue cetrotide injections for several days to normalise the hormone levels. 

When collecting the eggs, they expect to retrieve between 10-15 eggs, this is the average. For me (and I am lucky for once this year!!!), they retrieved 28 eggs! I am so pleased that they managed to retrieve so many eggs and If I need to use them in the future then we have a good amount of chances too! 

If you are still here, Well Done! Thank you for reading this rather long blog post however I felt it was really important to try and get all the information too you . If anyone has any questions, please feel free to message me and ask away!

Laura x