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 Researchers who contacted adoption agencies found that while all
prospective parents were asked to provide a medical history, cancer
survivors might also be required to submit letters from physicians
or show they were disease free for at least five years.
“Some survivors have no trouble at all getting this medical
clearance and it just becomes one of many documents they need to
gather, but others have had difficulty with the letter,” said study
leader Gwendolyn Quinn of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, in
email to Reuters Health.
Earlier research found that among childhood cancer survivors, almost
half of men and nearly a third of women are infertile, Quinn and her
colleagues say.
In a report scheduled for publication in the journal Cancer, they
note that while cancer survivors – and health care providers – often
see adoption as a default option for addressing infertility, many
don’t realize the logistics involved, or the potential barriers
posed by an oncology diagnosis.
For the current study, 77 oncology nurses trained in reproductive
health and family-building for adolescent and young adult cancer
survivors contacted adoption agencies in 15 states and interviewed
administrators or intake counselors.
The interviews touched on adoption fees, the number of cancer
survivors the agency sees, and any added application steps required
for cancer survivors, as well as whether women placing babies for
adoption might have reservations about prospective parents with a
history of cancer.
Fees ranged from a low of $3,000 to a high of $75,000 and were
typically around $20,000 to $30,000, the nurses reported.
While these fees weren’t any higher for cancer survivors than other
applicants, they might be more burdensome for people who also had
steep bills associated with the costs of their cancer care.
Not all agencies tracked adoption applications by cancer survivors;
those that did reported an average of 10 a year.
Some nurses found that applicants’ life expectancy was a strong
factor in determining whether they would be suitable as adoptive
parents.
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In particular, to the extent that birth mothers would know the
medical history, they might reject prospective parents based on a
cancer diagnosis in the past, the researchers note.
But more than half of the adoption agencies said a cancer history
might be seen as a positive for a birth mother looking for parents
who have overcome hardships and have an appreciation for life.
For all of these reasons, younger cancer patients should discuss
options for preserving fertility and the potential for adoption
before they start treatment, Quinn said.
“The take-home message for patients is that there are many options
for growing their families after cancer, from needing no help to
have a baby to fertility treatment to adoption,” said Dr. Irene Su,
a reproductive medicine researcher at the University of California
San Diego.
Su, who wasn’t involved in the study, said in an email that the
current standard options for fertility care are banking of sperm,
eggs or embryos.
“It’s still difficult to predict infertility in the majority of
cancer patients,” Su said. “Patients and their families can really
benefit from talking with their providers about whether their
treatments pose a risk of infertility, and if so, whether fertility
preservation options are available to them.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1RuwUpM Cancer, released July 13, 2015.
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