On February 25th, I received the phone call that no one ever wants to get - “I’m so sorry Julia, that lump in your breast is cancerous”. At age 29, 4 months before our wedding, 5 months before we wanted to try to conceive, we found out I will be going through chemotherapy instead.
Immediately I was thinking about my fertility and how chemo might affect our chances of having a baby. I pushed my doctors for a referral to Dr. Wise at Olive in Kelowna and she was wonderful in explaining our options. We decided on freezing embryos and got started within days - there was no time to waste given that we had to get this cycle of IVF in before chemo started.
The whole team at Olive in Kelowna and in Vancouver was extremely helpful, compassionate, and made sure we had the best chance of a positive outcome. After 8 days of injections my eggs were ready and we hit the road to Vancouver for egg retrieval the next day.
After the almost painless procedure, we learned there were 6 eggs. 4 were fertilized, 2 stopped growing. That now leaves us with 2 embryos cryogenically frozen and awaiting implantation once the doctors give us the all clear in a few years!
Fertility preservation and embryo freezing isn’t something many of us think about, especially when we’re young and healthy. If you are unlucky like me and get a diagnosis, make sure you think about this early, advocate for yourself, use that small window of time before treatment starts well. I can truly say the peace of mind this has given me going into chemotherapy is priceless.
