Before you start your stem cell transplant one of the many questions you have to think about is do you want children?
Unfortunately the high dose chemotherapy used to prepare your body for transplant can affect your fertility.
In my case there is time to do fertility treatment before my transplant and I had alwways thought we would start a family in the future , but the questions that came in to my head were, do I want to put myself, partner and family through this before my transplant? there is so much going on and to do as it is, will I even be well enough to have a child after transplant? so many doubts and fears go through your mind its such a difficult choice and you also dont want to make yourself more ill and as with any treatment there are risks.
In the end we decided if we dont do this and I am well enough after transplant we will regret not trying.
We will be starting treatment soon and freezing embryos this involves lots of injections,scans and a mini operation to remove eggs.
Both of my parents have tested negative for the gata2 gene. This is fantastic news for the rest of the family. Everyone has differences from their parents but in my case its a really rubbish one as the consultant said "its a bit like winning the lottery backwards"! Unfortunately once the mutation in the genes has happened its always going to be there and there is a 50% chance you will pass it on if you have children. I personally could not leave it to chance and just hope it didnt pass on as this is not a manageable illness if I did pass it on the chances are the child would go through what i am going through.
Our option to cut out this risk is PGD treatment this is were the embryo's are tested for the defective gene and the ones that do have it are not used for your fertility treatment, this process can take 18 months so this part of the treatment will be after my transplant
The other option you have is to not test the embryos then when/if you become pregnant test at 12/13 weeks and if the gene is there have an abortion. For us this was not an option we could even think about.
So as I go into the next step before treatment I am feeling anxious but think we are doing the right thing, nothing is worse than regret and this way we will have the option.
For anyone who is working up to transplant you must think carefully about what you want to do regarding fertility if you have the option. There is treatment for both men and women available whether you are in a relationship or not.
Take a look at http://www.anthonynolan.org for more information.
For more about PGD treatment take a look at http://www.pgd.org.uk