In 2013, at just 29-years-old Sarah Murray was diagnosed with breast cancer just as she was about to set out planning her wedding.
After fighting her way to remission she had hoped to be able to start a family. But like so many survivors in her case she was fearful of the cancer coming back, if she decided to get pregnant, reported the Daily Mail.
Breast cancers survivors are also worried about their chances of getting pregnant because chemotherapy can cause infertility in women who have not gone through menopause. That can have an affect on the functioning of the ovaries and reduce the number of eggs and its quality. The type of chemotherapy drugs used, the dose and age of a woman determines the likelihood of becoming infertile.
Murray from Connecticut (US) decided to take the risk and join a European trial examining how survivors are affected by pregnancy. The study is based on women whose cancers were fuelled by hormones and might spur a recurrence. More than half of the 1,200 breast cancer survivors who participated in the research had tumors whose growth was charged by estrogen. On average, 333 women became pregnant after treatment, two and half years after being diagnosed with cancer.
Murray beat the odds becoming the first American women in the study to have had a baby. She gave birth to her son Owen in December 2016. Her achievement is proof that it is safe for survivors to become pregnant.
Currently, a larger study is looking to find out if women can temporarily suspend taking hormone-blocking drugs while pregnant, that is usually recommended for five years after initial treatment.
