Free fertility service so young cancer patients can have kids

A free service to collect, freeze, transport and store reproductive tissue from young cancer patients — aged 13 to 30 — is being offered to preserve their fertility, which is often destroyed by cancer treatments. Ovarian and testicular tissue can now be stored for later use post cancer treatment to ensure a future family.

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Young cancer sufferers will now be offered a free service to preserve their chances of having children.

Cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation often rob young people of the ability to have children in the future. Until now, fertility preservation options have been too costly, too distant or not even offered.

Now a free service to collect, freeze, transport and store reproductive tissue from young people aged 13 to 30 around the country is being offered by a team of fertility specialists at the Royal Women’s Hospital Melbourne and funded by the Sony Foundation.

The National Ovarian and Testicular tissue Transport and Cryopreservation Service (NOTTCS) — the first of its kind in Australia — will offer a fertility-preserving service to patients undergoing cancer treatment, Sony Foundation CEO Sophie Ryan said.

Emma Micallef gave birth to her son Felix at 35 weeks in 2016 after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Emma and Alex Micallef, pictured with their son Felix, are now trying for another baby via IVF.

Sony Foundation launched its youth cancer campaign You Can in 2010 to raise funds to fill gaps in care and services.

“It is the number one unmet need, having a family down the track is one of the biggest things that will impact their lives post-treatment and a lot of treatment is focused on there and now,” Ms Ryan said.

Less than one in four adolescent and young male patients bank sperm before cancer treatment and only 4 per cent of young women and adolescents undertake fertility preservation because of costs and logistics.

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It can cost up to $10,000 with ongoing storage fees.

“Almost 50 per cent of young cancer patients are not told of the fertility risks and fertility preservation options before they start their treatment, it’s shocking,” Ms Ryan said.

“For those that are told, it’s often in terms of you don’t have time, or patients find it is cost-prohibitive or its too hard to access the service.

“This will be treated in hospital where it is part of their oncology treatment, which will make a huge difference.

“It will be entirely free. We wanted to make sure this wasn’t just available to people in the cities, so we will be paying for the tissue collection and transport to the Melbourne hospital for storage so anyone in Australia can access the tissue grafting service.”

Emma Micallef with her son Felix. Emma had an ovary taken to preserve her fertility before cancer treatment. Picture Gary Ramage

Associate Professor Kate Stern, who is head of the Women’s Fertility Preservation Service at

the Royal Women’s Hospital, said it should be part of standard cancer care for young people.

“If you are young and have cancer you there is an 80-89 per cent survival so you want to expect a full and normal life and if you have infertility it is like a double whammy,” Prof Stern said.

“The technology we are talking about with Sony is being able to take ovarian or testicular tissue from young patients.

“The processing and handling and cryopreservation is very specialised and delicate, so most units can’t offer it.

“With the Sony grant … (we will) educate local providers that this is important and organise for them to take the tissue and we will retrieve it and keep it until they need it.

“This is a free service through the public hospitals.”

Gizelle Tadros has her son Charbel after her ovarian tissue was frozen a decade ago. Pic, Sam Ruttyn

Emma Micallef found out she had cervical cancer at age 29, when she was 31 weeks pregnant with her first child. She was told her baby would have to be delivered early and the treatment would leave her infertile.

Ms Micallef delivered son Felix at 35 weeks, then had her ovarian tissue harvested and stored.

“They took a whole ovary and that was to preserve my fertility, we did not have time to do an IVF cycle and I wanted to preserve my fertility and that was forefront,” she said.

“I was diagnosed on the Tuesday, saw the oncologist on the Wednesday and a fertility specialist on the Thursday.”

As the Sony program was not up and running in 2016, Ms Micallef and her husband Alex had to pay for it. They are now undergoing IVF cycles.

“At the moment we’ve spent about $20,000. The new service will take a lot of pressure off young people,” the now 32-year-old said.

Two-year-old Charbel Tadros was born 10 years after his mother, Gizelle Tadros, had her ovarian tissue frozen at age 21 when she was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Ms Tadros, now 32, survived the intense chemotherapy and beat cancer, then used her stored tissue to have a baby.

“It took five rounds of IVF before our beautiful little miracle boy was born on the 23rd of October 2017,” the proud mum from Penrith said.

Originally published as Free fertility service so young cancer patients can have kids