Currently,
Hodgkin's lymphoma is one of the most curable types of
cancer.
Patients are often young and so the long-term
morbidities of
treatment have become of increasing concern. Among these,
infertility is one of the most challenging consequences for
patients in reproductive age.
Premature ovarian failure in premenopausal
women is a serious long-term sequel of the
toxicity of
chemotherapy. The main consequence of this
syndrome is
infertility, but
women also present other symptoms related to
estrogen deprivation. Different rates of impaired gonadal function are reported, depending on the
patient's age, stage of
disease,
dose and intensity of
chemotherapy and the use of
radiation therapy. The most established strategy in
female infertility is
cryopreservation of
embryos after
in vitro fertilization. Additionally, the use of
oral contraceptives or gonadotropinreleasing
hormone analogs (
GnRH-a) during
treatment is under study. This
review will provide a general overview of the main studies conducted to evaluate the
infertility rate among
female Hodgkin's lymphoma survivors and
risk factors associated to
treatment, different end-point definitions for evaluating
fertility and also a brief description of the available
strategies for
fertility preservation.