Living with womb cancer
Womb cancer mostly affects women who have gone through menopause. Many women who are diagnosed with womb cancer have finished their family.
More rarely, it can affect younger women who still want to have children. Most treatments for womb cancer will affect your fertility and mean that you are unable to have children. This news can be difficult to cope with.
The main treatments for womb cancer are surgery and radiotherapy. Some also need cancer drug treatment with chemotherapy or targeted treatments. These can also affect fertility.
Read more about fertility, an early menopause and sexuality in women
Whether it is possible to have fertility preserving treatment will depend on:
how big your cancer is and how far it has grown, this is the stage of your cancer
how abnormal the cancer cells are, this is the grade of your cancer
To have fertility preserving treatment, your cancer needs to be at an early stage. This means it needs to be stage 1A grade 1 womb cancer.
The usual treatment for early stage womb cancer is surgery. This gets rid of the cancer for nearly all those having it. Choosing to have fertility preserving treatment means you aren’t having standard treatment. Your doctor will talk to you about the possible risks of not having surgery straight away.
Anyone wanting to have fertility preserving treatment is usually seen at a specialist centre. First, they will want to confirm the stage of your cancer. This means that you will need to have a sample of tissue taken. This is called a biopsy. You will also need to have an scan.
Fertility preserving treatment means taking the hormone treatment progesterone. This aims to shrink the cancer, and for some, it may go away. Then, after six months of hormone treatment, you have another biopsy of your womb and an MRI scan to check how well it is working.
If treatment hasn’t worked your doctor will recommend you have surgery to remove the cancer. If it is working you have a chance to get pregnant. Your doctor may refer you to a fertility specialist.
Your doctors will want to see you regularly, and you will need tests. This is to monitor the cancer and whether it has grown.
Once you have had your children, your specialist will recommend that you have surgery to remove your womb.
Not being able to become pregnant and give birth can be quite a shock. You might need time to:
come to terms with your loss of fertility
deal with the feelings that come with a natural change of life as well as a diagnosis of cancer
This can even be true if you have had your menopause and could no longer become pregnant. It can feel like the end of a particular phase of life.
Many women feel a great sense of loss after surgery to remove the womb. Some find the operation makes them feel less feminine.
Talk to your GP, nurse or hospital doctor if you feel you need some help. A support group might be helpful. Or you could think about counselling.
Last reviewed: 19 Apr 2024
Next review due: 19 Apr 2027
Coping with womb cancer can be difficult. There is help and support available.
Womb cancer treatment can have an effect on your sex life and relationships. Knowing what to expect, and talking things over can be helpful.
Current research is looking at diagnosing and treating womb cancer.
Hormones are substances that occur naturally in the body. They control the growth and activity of our cells. You might have hormone therapy for advanced womb cancer or womb cancer that has come back.
You may hear womb cancer being called uterine cancer. The endometrium is the lining of the womb. Endometrial cancer is the most common type of womb cancer.
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