Pregnancy and Herceptin

[vonny]

My daughter has just finished her last chemo session, Docetaxel (Taxotere®) she is Stage IV with mets to her spine.
We have been told that she will be on Herceptin along with Zemeta every 3 weeks, indefinitely.
My daughter is only 22 years old. She is hoping and praying that one day she will be able to have her own children, however first her periods need to start again after the effects of the chemo and secondly…. will she ever be able to be off Herceptin long enough to carry a child?
Any information would be very much appreciated
Thank you

[Jackie07]

Yes, it's possible. Here's Laurie's story...

http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=277880#post277880

[vonny]

Thank you Jackie, Laureen's story is truly inspirational!

[Lauriesh]

I think the biggest factor would be if your daughter is estrogen pos or neg. if she is estrogen pos, getting pregnant in the future would be much more problematic.



Laurie

[KristinSchwick]

There is always hope- so long as she can save some eggs or find a donor and possibly a surrogate. To carry naturally- its not advised. But there is this one gal who did just that and her child survived and thrived (as far as I know). She hasn't posted on her blog for years. But it has happened.

http://sonarbat.blogspot.com/

PS: I'm not sure the gal that was mentioned above had bone mets or was ever stage IV- correct me if I'm wrong.

[StephN]

The difference in Laureen's story mentioned by Jackie, is that Laureen was not stageIV and did not need to continue Herceptin beyond a year.

[Becky]

Laureen has 2 children post treatment and prior to breast cancer, she could never get pregnant. I don't believe she intended to but didn't think she could. Obviously, she did and then did again. We are all her kids "Her2 Aunties (or Uncles)". Lani said to her once that the chemo could have actually fixed her if her problem was an undiagnosed very low grade infection. One of the chemos she took has antibiotic effects. But as Steph says, she was not Stage 4.