[Cancer chemotherapy and fertility in women]

Therapeutic advances for certain cancers raise now the problem of long-term toxicity of the chemotherapy, especially on the gonads. The risk of involvement of the gonadic function in women depends on the type of medication used, the dose and duration of the treatment and mostly the age of the patient. After the age of 35, amenorrhea is almost constant and often irreversible. The younger the woman, the better the prognosis. Finally, it seems that post-chemotherapy pregnancies are normal, and so are the children born. However, the carcinogenic risks of the descendants and the risks of mutation of other generations are not well known at the present time.