Fertility Preservation
We believe that fertility preservation is a key part of medical care for your child or teen. Future fertility is important for long-term quality of life. Certain medical conditions have a higher risk of causing fertility problems in the future. This may include cancer diagnoses/treatments, genetic conditions (such as Turner Syndrome), bone marrow transplant, rheumatology conditions and more.
Talking with your family about the risks associated with your child’s diagnosis or treatment can help us determine what, if any, fertility preservation procedure is right for your child. Our goal is to discuss the strengths, limitations, successes, and science behind each option. We work closely with your child’s primary medical team to ensure the best quality of care.
We have teamed up with the University of Kansas Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (KU REI) group to help us offer all available fertility preservation options. This allows us to provide or connect you with the most up-to-date processes and techniques. At Children’s Mercy, we counsel on all options, including:
- Egg freezing.
- Sperm freezing.
- Ovarian tissue freezing.
- Testicular tissue freezing.
We consult with about 75 patients a year and perform about 15 ovarian tissue preservations and 5 testicular tissue preservation procedures per year. We also refer several patients to KU REI for sperm or egg freezing.
What to expect
Our goal is to make a fertility preservation plan with your family prior to any gonadotoxic treatment (medications or other treatments that can impact fertility), but this can vary from one person to another.
Members of the Children’s Mercy Gynecology and Urology teams will support you through the fertility preservation process. We offer consultations at Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas or our downtown Adele Hall Campus, but the procedure itself is only performed at Adele Hall.
First, you will meet with an APRN or physician from the fertility preservation team for an initial consultation. If you and your child decide to move forward with a preservation procedure, an APRN from Gynecology will coordinate your child’s surgery and one of our pediatric gynecology surgeons will perform the procedure.
We will send the tissue to KU REI for processing. Their team is also involved and kept up to date along the way.
After the procedure is complete, your child’s primary care or specialist team will continue to oversee their care. Sometimes, you’ll have a follow-up appointment with the Fertility Preservation team about a year later, but not everyone needs continued care once the procedure is done.
Additional support
It can be hard to think and talk about future fertility when your child is many years away from considering parenthood. We can connect you with one of our social workers, psychologists, child life specialists or chaplains to help you talk through this complex situation.