Page 3510 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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system and some in the private system, it can become complicated. We know that without early, supported conversations about fertility, with a clear path to navigate, people can miss out.
One study by the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne IVF and the University of Melbourne found that many women diagnosed with cancer were not being referred to a fertility preservation specialist due to fears that those specialists may delay their treatment. The study of oncologists found that 44 per cent cited concerns about delaying treatment as the main reason they would not refer newly diagnosed patients. Yet international guidelines on this topic recommend that physicians have early discussions with all patients of a reproductive age about their risk of infertility from disease or treatment and their interest in having children in the future so that they can make informed decisions. This is also canvassed in the guidelines for the management of early breast cancer, as published by Cancer Australia.
It is this compelling evidence that has resulted in me moving this motion today. I am calling on the ACT government to investigate the feasibility of establishing a territory-wide fertility preservation service for Canberrans of reproductive age diagnosed with cancer or another serious disease which may impact their fertility. This would be a more streamlined, rapid process so that patients and their treating specialists can make early, informed, supported decisions about fertility preservation. This would then allow any fertility preservation measures to be undertaken as quickly and efficiently as possible, thereby allowing for treatment for the cancer or disease to also start quickly, with no delay.
I am not wedded to a particular model of exactly what this looks like or how it runs, but we just have to make this process simpler—more supported, more connected and more accessible. There needs to be a streamlining of existing services and resources, clear guidelines for treating specialists, perhaps a single point of contact to help shepherd patients through this urgent process, identifying or creating a fertility preservation clinic which provides this immediate care to patients when time is of the essence, and looking at what other barriers need to be removed, such as prohibitive costs.
This is not new. Last month the New South Wales health minister launched the state’s new fertility and research centre, a collaboration between UNSW Sydney and the Royal Hospital for Women. Among its facilities are on-site fertility preservation services for young people with cancer and rare genetic diseases. The fertility preservation clinic at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne provides a similar service, in conjunction with Melbourne IVF and major oncology units. Maybe there are opportunities for the ACT to partner with or at least draw from these experiences in other states.
Not everyone will need to use this service. The number of people who get cancer at a reproductive age is not huge. But when those people’s lives are turned upside down by an insidious disease, everything becomes huge, complex, confusing and time limited. It is a tragedy that people might be limiting their own future options simply because they do not have the right support and services provided to them through a dedicated service. It does not have to be this way. Providing a service like this could
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