History Of Cancer Treatment: A Risk For Still Births
Researchers from the Vanderbilt University say that women who have a history of undergoing radiation therapy for cancer treatment during their childhood are at risk for giving birth to stillborn children. This was because they found high doses of radiation in the pelvis of 28 out of the 5,000 pregnant women subjects of the study.
There is a belief that radiotherapy affected the development of the uterus and ovaries. In the conducted study, 5 out of 28 women with high radiation levels in their pelvises had early child death or stillborn children.
As a reminder, doctors are urged to carefully monitor pregnancies of women cancer survivors with a history of radiation therapy.
On the other hand, chemotherapy drugs were found to have no harmful effects to future pregnancies. Furthermore, men are not at risk because new sperm is produced throughout their lives.
