Updated by the Progyny Clinical Team — December 2025.
A cancer diagnosis, or learning that you’re at higher risk, can raise urgent questions about your future fertility. For people who haven’t started or finished building their families, those questions can feel overwhelming. The good news: advances in reproductive medicine offer options that let you prioritize treatment while protecting your ability to have children later.
So what options exist if you’re facing cancer treatment — or planning preventive care if you know you are at high risk for developing cancer — before your family is complete?
Egg freezing
Egg freezing preserves eggs for future use and is a well-established option before treatments that may affect fertility. It can be especially helpful when pregnancy needs to be delayed, including during cancer care.
Eggs retain their age-related reproductive potential at the time they are frozen. This means that eggs frozen earlier in life may offer higher chances of pregnancy later. For example, eggs frozen at age 33 generally provide similar pregnancy potential when used at age 40 as they would have at 33, though outcomes vary and pregnancy is never guaranteed.
Egg freezing has also been shown to be an effective form of fertility preservation. Long-term studies have found that most frozen eggs survive the thawing process, and many of those eggs can be successfully fertilized. While fertilization does not guarantee pregnancy or live birth, these outcomes support egg freezing as a viable option for people looking to preserve fertility.
For individuals diagnosed with cancer — or those at higher risk, including adolescents and young adults — knowing these options exist can provide reassurance and hope for the future.
Embryo freezing
If you have a partner and are facing a cancer diagnosis, freezing embryos instead of eggs may be an option to consider. The process is similar to egg freezing. After eggs are retrieved, they are fertilized with sperm in the embryology lab and grown for several days until they reach an advanced stage called a blastocyst.
Blastocysts can be tested for aneuploidy, which means having an incorrect number of chromosomes, and then frozen for future use. If you carry a known gene mutation that increases your risk for cancer, embryos can often be tested for that mutation as well.
One advantage of embryo freezing is that your doctor can more accurately estimate the chance of a future live birth compared with frozen eggs. A key consideration, however, is that embryos are jointly owned by both partners. You must both agree on how the embryos can be used before they can be thawed and transferred into a uterus.
An open conversation with a fertility specialist can help you weigh the benefits and limitations of freezing eggs versus embryos and decide which option best fits your goals and circumstances.
Getting started
If fertility preservation is something you’re considering, start by talking with your oncologist about your treatment timeline. From there, a fertility specialist can help determine whether egg or embryo freezing is appropriate and create an individualized plan.
Because the process typically takes a few weeks, early coordination can help avoid delaying cancer treatment. After treatment is complete and you’re ready to pursue pregnancy, it’s important to reconnect with your oncology and fertility care teams to confirm that it’s a safe time to move forward. Once you receive medical clearance, your fertility specialist will guide you through next steps based on your overall reproductive health.
If you have questions, Progyny is here for you. Please contact your Progyny Care Advocate for support.
Disclaimer: The information provided by Progyny is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical guidance.