After nearly two years of treatment, her fertility was compromised and she was left with a two per cent chance of conceiving
After the sixth round of chemo, the cancer was shrinking so much they wanted to blast it with one more round before the planned lumpectomy. I asked for a BRCA1 test to identify if my cancer was genetic – it took seven months to find out that it was. This was shit news because it meant it was more likely to come back. I also found out that there was a high chance I could develop ovarian cancer. In just a week, I went from preparing for a lumpectomy to a mastectomy to a double mastectomy.
With my frozen eggs, I was told I had a seven per cent chance of IVF being successful: it wasn’t an outright no, but the doctors wanted me to know it was not a good prognosis. My body had been pumped full of drugs. I needed to step back and rest. So, I went on holiday and then back to work. I started dating again. At 39 I met the right person. One of the things I liked most about him was that he was upfront from the start about wanting a family. I told him about my situation and his immediate response was, “That’s OK, they don’t have to be mine, I’ve already looked into adoption.” Ironically, I’d independently come to the decision that maybe I didn't want to put my body through another trauma and that adoption could be an option.
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