Hi Mag, I can't speak for the females, but I can speak for my son. He got AML M3 at age 22 and the doctor told us that he had a very slim chance (maybe 5%) of ever having children.  I had resorted to the fact that I would not become a grandmother.  Saying that, I now have an almost 4 month old grand baby boy, and my son is now 25.  I call him my little miracle baby and he truly is.  He lights up my life, just like my son does!  I can say that you should think positive thoughts and pray as I did.  God works miracles and his power is almighty!

mag7fan1 -

I had APL as well, though I was 36 and a mother to two.  I was diagnosed three years ago today, April 26, 2006, and the docs started me on megace to stop my cycles.  The cycle I had before I was diagnosed is the last cycle I've had.

I don't know whether I am able to have children since my husband and I opted not to pursue fertility testing.  I figured that my poor body had already been through enough.  Instead, we adopted a baby boy in October, and we couldn't be happier.  From the moment I first held him, he became our son, and we feel no differently about him than we do our other two.  Actually, tonight, we'd keep him and give up the other two.

I know another APL patient who had a transplant and who was able to get pregnant with an egg donor.  She has had no trouble carrying the pregnancy.

In short, don't give up yet.  You may become a mother through "traditional" or alternative routes, but it will happen, and it will be wonderful.

Diane

i was just diagnosed with AML this past october, I had induction, 3 rounds of consolidation, and now i have to do eight rounds of maintenance (dacogen). They talked breifly with me about fertility at the very beginning, when they were considering a BMT, they told me that could make me infertile. I have asked my doctors repeatedly if there are any fertility side effects from my chemo's and they told me that they have no reason to believe there are any fertility complications associated with induction or the Hi-Dac i was on for consolidation. Also when i had my appt last week, one of my nurse practitioners told me just came from seeing a AML pt (female) that was diagnosed two years ago, and now is 8 months pregnant, and so far everything has went well. I was worrying a lot about fertility, and when i heard that it made me feel a lot better, hope this helps you too

Hi!

I'm fairly certain that PeachyQueen is referring to me--she's a fantastic woman whom I've had the pleasure of meeting post-diagnosis... and I also wanted to share my story.

At age 28 I was diagnosed with AML-APL (M3) in January 2007. I underwent a failed induction with Idarubicin and ATRA at Emory University Hospital. Mid-February of 2007 I started Arsenic Trioxide, which put me into remission as of April 2007.

I, too, was very worried about how this would affect my fertility. In fact, I had scheduled the stem cell transplant for June of 2007 and then backed out a few weeks prior because I feared I was making a hasty decision which would impact my ability to have children. I sought out additional opinions on my case, and was told that I would eventually relapse if I didn't have the transplant. I thought one of the most selfish things I could do was to get pregnant and then have a recurrence of the disease months into the pregnancy or when the baby(ies) were small--and leaving a child motherless and a husband wifeless seemed to big of a risk and just cruel. I underwent a SCT Sept 4, 2007 and haven't had any recurrences. Yeah!

In February of 2008 (age 29) I started seeing a reproductive endocrinologist because I stopped cycling during my treatment, and learned I had diminished ovarian reserve and was in menopause. The hem/oncs with whom I worked told me that the SCT may leave me infertile, and that my chances of recovering ovarian function were 50/50, but even then, weren't sure what the quality of my egg reserve would be. I, too, was too sick to consider my fertility at the time of diagnosis, in which I was 90% cancerous (and really not expected to live).

My sister donated eggs to me and we went through our first, fresh IVF cycle in late November of 2008. Two weeks later we learned I was pregnant! I've had no cancer-related issues with my pregnancy, and my PCR test each month has returned 100% normal. I am due to give birth in 3-4 weeks with fraternal twins (one girl, one boy) and am 31.

In the end, I asked myself what I wanted--to have biological children or to be a mother and have children. I could have waited a few years to see if my egg reserve would have re-emerged, but I've learned from having AML and a SCT that life is for the living, and I didn't want to prolong parenthood once I was given an "all clear" from my doc. I often think about how easy it is for people to become pregnant, and how many unwanted pregnancies there are, and just have to laugh at the unfairness of it all... but I truly believe that the children I'm carrying (sister's eggs, husband's sperm) are meant to be mine.

You certainly do not need to give up your dream of being a mommy. You may get pregnant (naturally) after your treatment and may not. But know there are options, even if you never imagined having to consider some "alternative" approaches to mommyhood.

My very best to you!

E-girl