Surgery

In surgery, cancer can be taken out of the body during an operation. Sometimes, when cancer is removed it is necessary to take out part of the body where the cancer was growing. If cancer was affecting the ovaries, cervix or womb, young women may have problems with fertility in the future. It is hard to know how the operation will affect your fertility, but this can be influenced by the type of cancer you have.

• Some surgery in the abdomen may cause scarring in the fallopian tubes. This may block the eggs travelling to meet the sperm.
• Removal of the womb during a hysterectomy results in a young woman being unable to carry a child.
• If the ovaries are surgically removed (oophorectomy), a young woman cannot get pregnant using her own eggs, (unless ovarian tissue is frozen at the time of surgery).
• Some female reproductive organs may be removed during surgery. This is to treat other abdominal cancers, such as bladder cancer, which can spread in the abdomen.
• Surgery to the brain for brain tumours can cause damage to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland produces the hormones involved in egg production. Young women whose pituitary gland is damaged may not be able to make the signals that are needed to use the eggs that remain in her ovary.