I'm a bit confused by the data that is available. Some people have said that there is virtually no chance of having children after such treatment but other sources claim that the chances are good.

I understand that most of the damage is done by one of the FEC drugs
(cyclophosphamide?) and that the fertility statistics are based on a course of six FEC treatments. If this is correct, might it suggest a more hopeful outlook for my wife as she had only four treatments? Does anybody have an opinion on this?

All I've been able to find out about Taxotere is that it has no impact on the fertility of rats, which again sounds a slightly optimistic note. It is a fairly new drug. Does anybody know of any studies of its impact on human fertility?

Some of the FEC studies I've read seem to suggest that age is a factor that strongly influences whether chemotherapy is likely to leave a woman infertile. Would it be right to think of the chemotherapy as 'ageing' a woman internally or advancing her biological clock? That is, if they are already close to the age at which menopause normally occurs, can the chemo push them over the edge so to speak? Conversely, does this mean that younger women are less likely to have fertility problems after chemo?

Lastly, I would like to ask if people find that medical professionals tend to strongly emphasise the risk of serious, adverse, long term consequences of chemotherapy such as infertility? I thought this might be a problem due to the number of people who try to sue doctors. While having the best of motives to care for their patients, could their concern to ensure informed consent for treatment lead to an over emphasis of adverse consequences?

-there is only one way to find out for sure. I would recommend a statistical survey with n=1. :-)

Even if you knew the effect of chemo on fertility, you still wouldn't know what your or your wife's fertility was like before chemo, so, unless it were totally devastating, which I'm pretty sure it isn't, you still wouldn't really know the probability of conception.

It doesn't really matter what the probabilities are unless you -don't- want children and are considering doing without contraceptives. Having children is an if-and-when thing for most people.

Remember that most women having chemo for BC are post- or peri-menopausal anyway, so reliable statistics on this are hard to come by.

- I thought chemo was normally used on pre menopausal women, I don't know any post who have had it (that doesn't mean there aren't any!) but most of the pre bc women I know have.