ABSTRACT
My understanding of chemotherapy was, generously speaking, pretty basic. Chemo I presumed meant chemical therapy, but which chemi cals and how they got into the body was a mystery. I had no concept of how it worked, and what the side effects might be. All I appreciated was that it could make me infertile. Dr Norton had told me that I would be receiving chemotherapy. The drugs could kill the ova stored in the ovaries, he said. If there was time they could start the IVF program with women (ova can only be frozen fertilised) but time was apparently one thing I did not have. ‘Oh well,’ I’d replied, trying to make light of such devastating information, ‘I can't think of anyone I’d particularly like to have children with.’ I needed to know what chemotherapy was before it was done to me.
