Not many know but one of the primary causes of infertility in both women and men is cancer and its treatments. Irrespective of which part of your body gets damaged by cancer, it can affect the ability of a woman to become pregnant or a man’s ability to conceive a child.
UTERINE OR OVARIAN CANCER
It can affect the ability of a woman to produce eggs, make implantation of fertilized eggs in the uterine wall almost impossible, or terminate previously created eggs. These functions are crucial to making a woman pregnant, thus these cancers can cause infertility. Also, it is possible that the eggs of a woman are not completely destroyed but are of poor quality making fertilization impossible.
PENILE OR TESTICULAR CANCER
It can reduce the sperm count in a man either destroying the ability to create sperm or making his sperm unviable. These types of cancer affect the penis or testicles and can cause erectile dysfunction or make him infertile. Not producing sperm, low sperm motility, and quality can make it impossible for a man to make a woman pregnant.
OTHER TYPES OF CANCER
There are different types of cancer that can trigger infertility. Bone, breast, blood, kidney, and lung cancers put a huge amount of stress on a body. To fight the abnormal cell growth that triggers cancer, a body diverts and changes how it expands energy. In simple words, the body will stop creating eggs or sperms or impede the supply of nutrients to the reproductive organs of a body.
THE EFFECT OF RADIATION ON FERTILITY
Radiation is one of the most common treatments for cancer. It affects the area where it is directed. However, ingested radiation medications or injected radiation can affect the entire body. It kills the active cells which divide, irrespective of whether they are cancerous or not. Thus, it affects sexual organs as well.
THE CHEMOTHERAPY EFFECT ON FERTILITY
Unlike radiation therapy, these treatments are not localized. Chemotherapy drugs are strong enough to affect the entire body killing even currently dividing cells. Thus, even if a patient does not have cancer in reproductive organs, they will get affected and might become infertile.
In addition to the above slated, surgical cancer treatments for treating infertility also affect the ability of a person to conceive a child. If you want to know more about cancer treatment on female infertility, the renowned infertility treatment clinic in Delhi.