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Will Sprycel (Desatinib) treatment ruin my eggs?

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Hi all. I know this question has been posted in various ways already but I was hoping to reach out on this forum as I’m quite distressed about my situation. I was recently diagnosed with CML 4 months ago as my partner and I were trying for a child. My doctor advised that I freeze embryos and get on the treatment for at least 2-3 years but that will put me at 40-41 years old. We just finished 2 IVF cycles and only managed to freeze 3 embryos so I feel my chances of pregnancy when I’m able to get off treatment are low. And certainly my chances for 2 kids seems out the window if I am relying solely on the frozen embryos. 
 

I guess my question to this forum is whether anyone has experience similar to this at a similar age? And also, are my eggs completely ruined by the treatment or is there a chance of a natural pregnancy still after 2-3 years treatment (100mg per day). 
 

Given the urgency to do the embryo freezing now before treatment starts it makes me think once I am on the drugs the eggs are basically unusable. If that’s not the case I’m unsure why I can’t continue to try and freeze more embryos on desatinib. 
 

Any and all info/comments would be much appreciated!

Okay - here is my experience. I was diagnosed at a few months before my 31st birthday. My husband and I were trying for a baby and I wasn’t feeling right so I went to get a physical and was diagnosed at that time. I have been on sprycel for 2 years and 6 months at this time. Since it was really important to my doctor that I not get pregnant I was told to go get an IUD. Before the doctor would insert the IUD she wanted me to have some fertility testing done by a reproductive endocrinologist and see about freezing eggs. This didn’t work out for me as my insurance would not cover freezing embryos. I was distressed about being refused and the endocrinologist conferred with my oncologist and through their discussions determined that the sprycel would not hurt my eggs since they are DORMANT cells. Something about sprycel only going after active cells that divide hence the danger it presents to a growing baby. This really helped me chill out! I hope this helps you too and I am so happy to hear you have some embryos on ice. Would it make you feel better to know that success with IVF is higher with a frozen transfer? Also maybe you could try having one baby naturally and then using embryos for baby #2? Would you consider adopting an embryo (this is what I would like to do if natural conception doesn’t work out for me). You have options and that’s awesome! I wish you the absolute best in your journey 😊

Also - your eggs are definitely not ruined!!! The medication will hurt an unborn baby though so please don’t get pregnant on accident. Where do you live and who is telling you this? They are really stressing you out and it’s just not cool!

Thank you so much for your reply and sharing your story. It’s made me feel much better!

I don’t know why my doctor has led me to believe this is the case, but he has also admitted he isn’t well versed in fertility issues which is making this all a bit harder for me to get clear info on. That is amazing that your doctor actually checked this out for you and it makes sense because it seems few women got the opportunity I did to do some egg freezing before starting treatment ( very lucky with early detection and low numbers) but it seems many women are having healthy children after treatment! So you’re totally right I should be happy that I have some options at hand and at least some embryos in the backlog :)

I’m thinking then that perhaps my doctor might be focusing more on my age by the time I’m able to get off the medication to try, which will be 40-41, so maybe he’s thinking to freeze as many 38 year old eggs as possible? I’ll obviously need to ask some more/better questions but your info here has give me a great basis for me to start asking for clearer information. 

Your idea about trying for one naturally and then using the embryos as backup is exactly what I was thinking now. I think I’m seeing how I am clearly lacking the right information and a clear plan from my doctor right - so thank you so much for sharing your story and plans. It’s truly made me feel a lot of relief!
 

And I hope so much you have a clear path forward as well with your own fertility plans as well.