Malignant diseases affect all younger people, both men and women, who are both working and in the reproductive period, and who want to be parents. As part of the RTS series “Cancer is curable 2”, we find out where you can seek help to get offspring while fighting against malignant diseases.
The 18th International Congress of Gynecology and Obstetricians of Serbia, Montenegro and Republika Srpska is underway. The congress marks the centenary of the Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University Clinical Center of Serbia.
In the 100 years of its existence, one million and sixty thousand babies were born in the clinic in Višegradska.
The National Center for Oncofertility works in this institution. The head of this center, professor Dr. Katarina Jeremić Stefanović, speaks for the series “Cancer is curable 2” about ways to preserve reproduction in the case of malignant diseases.
The Center for Oncofertility at the Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University Clinical Center has been operating for several years, and has been a reference for the last two years. Over the past ten years, more than hundreds of female patients have passed through the clinic, through various counseling centers for oncofertility, for psycho-oncology, and through consiliums.
“Mostly, despite the fact that cancer is curable and today in a smaller or larger number of cases it can be prevented, the incidence of cancer is still relatively high and affects the younger world, i.e. young people, both men and women, who have not yet achieved or they did not complete their reproduction”, pointed out professor Jeremić Stefanović.
According to her, patients first report to counseling centers for oncofertility, and then decisions are made, where later patients are presented to the multidisciplinary Consilium for Cancer and Human Reproduction, where a larger team of specialists participates.
“According to what type of tumor it is, and the patient should be treated, or if a tumor is present during pregnancy, then a multidisciplinary approach is taken in agreement with the patient on the method of treatment and the method of preservation of reproduction at the same time, or on the method of treatment and, if possible, preservation of the pregnancy . Therefore, it is a multidisciplinary, team approach and everything is done in agreement with the patient”, explains Dr. Jeremić Stefanović.
There are many counseling centers, among others, oncofertility counseling center, in vitro fertilization counseling center, endocrinology counseling centers, where patients come to the clinic either from health centers, from private surgeries, from the region, from all over Serbia.
Goal: preserve offspring and reproduction, and cure malignant disease
One of the most frequent questions that the expert team of the National Center for Oncofertility receives is how to preserve offspring and cure malignant disease.
“Mostly (patients) come before the start of treatment. “A certain number occurs even after treatment, so a method is chosen, for example, if the reserve of the ovaries is reduced, how to keep them in a different state, thanks to in vitro fertilization methods,” says professor Jeremić Stefanović.
The national center is intended for both men and women. The state finances the preservation of reproductive material, that is, the freezing of reproductive cells for up to 40 years in all those who have suffered from malignant diseases.
“It is possible to do this for eggs, sperm, also, embryos are accelerated. “An experimental method in the world is to freeze parts of the tissue of ovaries and testicles,” said the guest of RTS.
With malignancy, every pregnancy is high-risk
Planning and management of pregnancy in the case of a malignant disease is multidisciplinary and it is very important that patients contact specialists because it is a high-risk pregnancy.
Professor Katarina Jeremić Stefanović emphasizes that decisions are made primarily with the aim of preserving women’s health.
“It is imperative to preserve a woman’s health, if possible, of course, and it is mostly possible not to endanger the fetus and preserve reproductive function. In most cases, this is possible, except for some aggressive metastatic diseases or when the disease was practically diagnosed at the very beginning of the pregnancy, so it is the woman’s decision to terminate it,” explains Dr. Jeremić Stefanović.
The head of the National Center for Oncofertility tells women and men who want to become parents and are struggling with a malignant disease to never give up, that there are always solutions and that the clinic in Višegradska is open day and night for everything needed.
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