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PurposeToday, male and female adult and pediatric cancer patients, individuals transitioning between gender identities, and other individuals facing health extending but fertility limiting treatments can look forward to a fertile future. This is, in part, due to the work of members associated with the Oncofertility Consortium.MethodsThe Oncofertility Consortium is an international, interdisciplinary initiative originally designed to explore the urgent unmet need associated with the reproductive future of cancer survivors. As the strategies for fertility management were invented, developed or applied, the individuals for who the program offered hope, similarly expanded. As a community of practice, Consortium participants share information in an open and rapid manner to addresses the complex health care and quality-of-life issues of cancer, transgender and other patients. To ensure that the organization remains contemporary to the needs of the community, the field designed a fully inclusive mechanism for strategic planning and here present the findings of this process.ResultsThis interprofessional network of medical specialists, scientists, and scholars in the law, medical ethics, religious studies and other disciplines associated with human interventions, explore the relationships between health, disease, survivorship, treatment, gender and reproductive longevity.ConclusionThe goals are to continually integrate the best science in the service of the needs of patients and build a community of care that is ready for the challenges of the field in the future.

Purpose: To assess female cancer patients' perceptions of the fertility preservation decision-making process and to examine the effect of clinicians' support on the decision quality. Methods: A total of 71 patients participated in this longitudinal study with two assessment time points (before cancer therapy, after cancer therapy). Self-report measures assessed the decision-making process, the decision quality and the clinicians' support. Results: A less positive experience in the decision-making process was associated with higher decisional regret and lower decisional satisfaction. In the group that decided not to pursue FP, participants who perceived higher oncologist's support reported higher decisional satisfaction. Conclusions: A higher quality decision is positively associated with a better experience in the decision-making process. The oncologist's support is crucial for the decisional satisfaction of patients who decide not to pursue FP. Implications for psychosocial providers: Psychologists may be important in helping patients to adequately cope with the FP decision so that they can make a high-quality decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This cross‐sectional exploratory study aimed to examine the female cancer patients' personal and health care‐related variables mostly associated with their decision whether to preserve or not their fertility, in order to know more about the influence of attitudinal and health care‐related variables on this decision where fertility preservation (FP) is fully covered by the National Health System. Methods: Childbearing attitudes, health care‐related information, FP motivations and childbearing motivations were assessed, in a clinical setting, to female cancer patients in childbearing age, who were undergoing the FP decision‐making process. Results: This study included 89 participants (82% response rate). Those who decided to undergo FP attributed more value to the reasons for FP and less value to the reasons against FP than those who decided not to undergo FP. Not having children, strongly valuing pregnancy after cancer and attributing low value to the implications of the postponement of cancer treatments were significant and independently associated with deciding to preserve fertility. Conclusion: The decision to pursue FP is mainly influenced by three factors: the absence of children, attributing high value to trying to ensure future pregnancy and attributing low value to the possible postponement of cancer therapy in order to have time to preserve fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]