Babies or Cancer

Would you choose?

Do you think you could choose? What if the life saving treatment also left you unable to have children?

Lindsay Nohr Beck founder of Fertile Hope doesn't think you have to. When she was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue she thought of cancer being temporary and infertility being permanent. So she set out to find someone who could help her store her unfertilized eggs before she started chemotherapy. And while she was able to get pregnant twice without ever using her stored eggs, it was a relief to know that they were available should she need them.

Erin Zammett Ruddy and her sister Melissa Zammett Gonzalez are no strangers to cancer or being a mother. Erin, a CML patient who takes Gleevac recently went off her medication to have her son Alex. Gleevac is a daily medication which keeps Erin's CML at undetectable levels, not taking it could have caused her cancer to return. At this time Erin is currently back on Gleevac and thinking about having another child with her husband Nick.

Erin's sister Melissa was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma while she was seven months pregnant. Her only option was to start chemotherapy and deliver at 8 months. Her child is fine and even though Melissa has relapsed and had a stem cell transplant she is currently pregnant with her second child.

For these three women being a mother is something they put first but could you?