
Know your options for having children in the future
While more people are beating cancer, thanks to improvements in cancer treatments, few know that cancer, and cancer treatment, can affect a person’s fertility (or their ability to have children).
Often, there’s a very small window, just before starting cancer treatment, when a patient needs timely information to make informed decisions about preserving their fertility.
Yet, studies show that less than half of eligible cancer patients know, or are told, about preserving fertility because neither they, nor the health professionals treating them, are aware of these options.
Fertility After Cancer
To bridge these gaps, Western and Central Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service (WCMICS) has teamed up with onco-fertility experts from the Royal Women’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital to launch Australia’s first Fertility After Cancer campaign.
Safe and effective fertility preservation (or onco-fertility) options are now open to patients. Onco-fertility discussions are critical for people to make informed, timely decisions about their future fertility.
New Australian fertility preservation guidelines call for every patient’s cancer plan to include an onco-fertility discussion, supported by age-appropriate materials. Our Fertility After Cancer videos and resources respond directly to these national guidelines.
Here, newly diagnosed cancer patients and their families and friends, can find targeted information in plain language about the options on hand to help preserve fertility before treatment.
Get informed
For information specific to your situation, contact your GP or health care provider, or call on 13 11 20 to speak with a cancer nurse.
Meet our team of experts
Dr Violet Kieu
A/Prof. Yasmin Jayasinghe
Dr Daniel Lantsberg
About WCMICS
Western and Central Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service (WCMICS) is a cancer services improvement network tasked with improving the quality of cancer care, and patient experiences and outcomes, as well as reducing variations in care across the western and central Melbourne region.
Supported by the Victorian Government, WCMICS collaborates with partner health services and people affected by cancer to develop organised, coordinated, multidisciplinary and best-practice approaches to the provision of cancer services.
We do this by understanding unmet needs, accelerating opportunities to expand the reach of and access to cancer care, and creating new ways to drive and support change at multiple levels across the health system, locally and state-wide. Find out more at: vics.org.au/wcmics
© COPYRIGHT 2022 Western and Central Melbourne Integrated Cancer Centre. All rights reserved.