[Fertility after cytostatic treatments]

Antimitotic chemotherapy and radiation therapy can induce temporary or permanent infertility in men, transitory amenorrhea or premature ovarian failure in women, and genetic mutations responsible of fetal deaths or congenital malformations in the progeny. Alkylating agents and radiotherapy can provoke definitive male infertility and ovarian failure, but individual susceptibility seems quite variable. In man, return of spermatogenesis can still be observed more than 10 years after treatment and pregnancies are obtained with very low sperm counts. In women, the progressive depletion of the follicular pool explains the increasing frequency of ovarian failure, with lower doses of treatment. Antimitotic and immunosuppressive therapy can also induce irreversible lesions in children's gonads.