Clinical Scorecard: Ethical Aspects and Approaches to Fertility Preservation in Reproductive-Aged Women with Cancer: Insights from Chinese Practices

At a Glance

Key Highlights

• Survival rate of frozen mature oocytes after thawing is 80%-90%; cumulative live birth rate is about 33%.
• Embryo freezing has a higher pregnancy rate than fresh embryos but is limited to married patients.
• Ovarian tissue freezing has a 37.7% pregnancy/live birth rate post-transplantation but carries a risk of tumor cell reintroduction.
• In vitro maturation technology has a significantly lower live birth rate (8.9%) compared to mature egg freezing.

Guideline-Based Recommendations

Diagnosis

• Infertility is defined as the inability to achieve clinical pregnancy after 12 months of unprotected, regular sexual intercourse.

Management

• Explore the impact of cancer and treatment on fertility; refer patients with fertility preservation intentions to reproductive medicine experts.

Monitoring & Follow-up

• Establish long-term follow-up and social support networks to accumulate offspring health and safety data.

Risks

• Ovarian failure incidence of 70% due to conditioning regimens in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Patient & Prescribing Data

Women of reproductive age with malignant tumors facing fertility loss.

Fertility preservation techniques include oocyte freezing, embryo freezing, ovarian tissue freezing, and in vitro maturation.

Clinical Best Practices

• Incorporate psychological assessment and family communication into the counseling process.
• Establish a multidisciplinary collaboration model to optimize treatment timing and balance tumor control with fertility protection.

Related Resources & Content

• American Society of Clinical Oncology Guidelines