Hello Aoife, 

Welcome to Cancer Chat and sorry to hear about your cervical cancer diagnosis at such a young age and the difficult decisions you are also having to face regarding fertility. One of our lovely members [@LauraP]‍ also had cervical cancer and she may have some insights for you on this or if you have any questions about treatment she would be a great person for you to talk to as she has been through all this before. 

On the question of fertility, this is a subject that has come up before on the forum and some of our young ladies here who have been affected by cancer at such a young age have had to face similar difficult choices. For example, [@JessieD]‍ and [@Tasha21]‍  who have been diagnosed with bowel cancer in their twenties discussed this on this thread so I hope you will be able to connect with other ladies here who have been in a similar position before. 

I hope your treatment goes well Aoife and we're all here for you if you need to talk. 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi Aoife

Sorry to hear your diagnosis, especially as you’re so young. Radiation treatment will unfortunately result in an early menopause-I was lucky in the sense that I am much older than you so fertility wasn’t an issue. 

I have stage 2b cervical cancer and have finished all of my treatments-chemo and radiotherapy. My check ups have gone well and I am currently free of disease. 

I’d be more than happy to share any information I can with you about treatment, and I would suggest you look at the forum on Jo’s Cervical Trust where there are a lot of ladies who have been through this at a young age and where there is a lot of information about early menopause and fertility.

I can certainly share my experiences with chemo and radio, and some of their side effects! Meanwhile, I wish you well with your treatment, and please do come back and let us know how you’re getting on. x

Hello,

I am sorry to hear about your situation but I do want you to know that you can get through this.   I had stage 2A cervical cancer, had 4 rounds of chemo, 25 rounds of external radiation and 5 or 6 rounds of internal radiation.. I am 6 1/2 years post cancer and have good luck with follow ups and no real issues with anything. I was 48 when diagnosed so the treatment induced menopause was not an issue for me. It is unfortunate that this is happening to you at such a young age.  But, this cancer is treatable and curable under most circumstances, so take it one day, one appointment at time. Let us know how you are doing and if you have any questions I might be able to answer, please fee free to ask!

Laura xx

Thank you for sharing your story and i am glad to hear that you have came out the other side. I will look into jo's cervical trust i have never heard of it. 

I am waiting on mt CT scan which will be next monday then i should be starting my treatment. I just keep hearing different things from different nurses, like one told me that the menopause was reversible and that i wouldn't loose my hair with the chemo. But then other consultant said my ovaries would be fried with the first week of treatment and i would go into an abrupt menopause and once it happens thats it. Also he said there was a lot of long term effects on my body from the radiation. And even just thr normal side effects like dryness, lack of sexual drive and triedness. 

How did you find the treatment expirence if you dont mind me asking? 

Thanks again x 

Hi laura, 

Thank you so much for replying, it great hearing from people who have been through this and our out the other side. I am at the end of the process to freeze my eggs for use at a future date. The closer my treatment gets the more nervious i am about it so its great to hear from people who have been through this. 

Xx

Hi Aoife

The forum I was talking about is on the website www.jostrust.org.uk 

I am not aware of anyone having pelvic radiation and NOT going through the menopause, and have never heard that the menopause is reversible, but I’m not a medical professional! The usual chemotherapy treatment is Cisplatin, and you will not lose your hair. It may thin a little but it will not fall out. It’s a low dose of chemo designed to help the radiotherapy do its job. 

I had no issues with chemo-it takes a long time, you’ll be there most of the day as they also put anti nausea and fluids through the IV before the chemo goes through. You will be prescribed steroids and anti nausea medication. Take the anti nausea even if you don’t feel sick-better to prevent nausea than try to stop it once it starts. Take things to occupy yourself while you’re doing chemo-iPad or phone, book etc.

I found radiotherapy hard going. I was fine for the first 2 weeks, then suffered miserably with diarrhoea and cystitis. It is very tiring having treatment every day, although the treatment itself doesn’t take long. Eating a low fibre diet helps(although it doesn’t seem healthy!) and drink lots and lots of water to flush your system. Cranberry juice helped with the cystitis. Tell your team about any side effects and you will be prescribed something to help. I had bad indigestion too but got a prescription which stopped it, along with Loperamide for my diarrhoea. 

I must stress though that everyone is different, and you might sail through it without any difficulties. I didn’t have dry skin, but was given lotion to use daily. Radiation can cause your insides to fuse together, and you will be given dilators to use to keep your vagina open. I would recommending using these as instructed. It’s not very pleasant but makes future internal exams easier. 

My treatment side effects finished very soon after my treatment, but my bladder and bowels are not quite as they were. And I’m still very tired most of the time. It can take your body a long time to heal. 

Hope that’s helped  little! Any more questions, just ask away. x 

Hi Aoife

i was diagnosed with cerival cancer a few wks ago and have been told my radiotherapy and chemotherapy will start in 3 wks. 
 

We originally didn't want to go for fertility treatment but decided today we would like to talk to the fertility consultant, we now have an appointment on Wednesday. 
 

I was wondering how long did the harvest process take in total, and did it affect how long after the process finished, to when you could start your treatment plan? 
 

Any advice is appreciated 

Hi, i am sorry to hear about your diagnosis. 

My consultant gave the ivf clinic 4 weeks to simulate and harvest my eggs. But in total from my first appointment to the harvest it was 3 weeks in total. 

The injections and harvest were about 14 days. I had my eggs harvested on a wednesday and the Thursday i had to go to the oncology hospital for my ct planning scan to get the radation treatment sorted. So once the eggs are harvested they can start straight away with other treatment. (I was a little tender after getting the eggs harvested but over all it wasnt too sore, your stomach will be a little tender too from the injections).

For the fertility stuff keep a little diary i found it really helped me keep on track of injections when they needed to be taken, what strenght they tell you to take and you will have alot of appointment for scans and bloods so its handy to keep you organised. 

If you need any help message me i will try give you any advice that helped me get through it. Best of luck with everything just try keep as positive as you can x 

Thank you, I have my first consultation tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have time for before everything starts.