livingcured

I've decided to really jazz things up here at livingcured. Today is the first in my multi-part series: Why Cancer Sucks. I won't go into the obvious reasons: death, disfigurement, chemotherapy. I really want to highlight the little known sucky things about it.

For instance, if you've had the misfortune of having cancer before you've started your family, the fertility issues are significant. Before I started chemotherapy, my husband and were able to do a round of IVF, which had successful results. But, my Onc feels strongly that I stay on Tamoxifen (an anti-hormonal breast cancer drug) for the full recommended five years, at which time I'll be 40. I'll likely be in menopause by then, thanks to the chemotherapy. And the Onc doesn't want me to take any time off Tamoxifen for a pregnancy. On top of all of this, the Tamoxifen is making my uterus inhospitable to a pregnancy. (It is policy here at livingcured to spare readers gory medical details.) The final blow to my mental health is that pregnancy has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer. (In fact, that I hadn't ever been pregnant is the one risk factor that I had for the disease.)

So long story short, we are starting to look for gestational surrogates. Which lead me to this web-page.

I'm scared.