Fertility preservation in >1,000 patients: patient's characteristics, spectrum, efficacy and risks of applied...

Data on the characteristics of female patients counselled for fertility preservation and the efficacy and risk of the applied procedures are still poor. We therefore analysed the registry of a network of 70 infertility centers which are involved in fertility preservation in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, called FertiPROTEKT ( hhtp://www.fertiprotekt.eu ).

1,280 counselled patients (15-40 years) were analysed regarding characteristics and different fertility preservation treatments before cytotoxic therapy in 2007-2009.

34.8% of the counselled patients were diagnosed with breast cancer, 30.5% with Hodgkin's lymphoma, 25.4% with other malignancies and 9.3% with non-malignant diseases. 89.6% of the treated breast cancer patients were 25-40 years of age, and 87.5% of the lymphoma patients were 15-30 years of age. At the time of counselling, 85.3% of the breast cancer patients and 92.7% of the lymphoma patients were childless. 1,080 patients received a single or combined therapy such as GnRH agonists (n = 823), cryopreservation of ovarian tissue (n = 500), ovarian stimulation (n = 221) and transposition of the ovaries (n = 24). Only one severe complication, requiring postponement of the chemotherapy, was documented. In stimulated patients, 2,417 oocytes (mean n = 11.6, SD ± 7.7) were received. Fertilisation rate per received oocyte was 61.3%.

Fertility preservation programmes mainly involve women without children, diagnosed with breast cancer or Hodgkin's lymphoma. Fertility preservation techniques can be applied with low risk. The limited and age-dependant success rate of the different therapies require individualised approaches of single or combined fertility preservation techniques.