When cancer impacts fertility
A patient story you need to read; and our latest collab on hormonal health with Research Hub; and our ReproTech tour.
🚨 LAST DAY - Hormonal Health Grant!
AthenaDAO and ResearchHub are working together to fund grants of $5000 USD for projects in hormonal health.
Our call for submissions closes TODAY, Wednesday, April 10th at 11:59 PM PST.
🤫 Please contact us if you need an extension up to this Friday, April 12th.
From medical student to patient
As part of Volume III of our Reproductive Health Report; Unexplored Cancers, here is a patient story that deserved its own freestanding post.
By: Anonymous
When you hear the word “cancer”, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Pain? Suffering? Death even? Certainly not something you would ever hope to hear. This is, however, an unfortunate reality that many individuals are burdened with every day, a lot of the time when it's least expected. I know I certainly did not. The idea of cancer is something that we build up in our minds to mean something so foreboding it's almost natural to simply believe it would never happen to us.
My perspective on cancer has drastically shifted within the past year. I am a medical student so a lot of the time I am forced to look at diseases from an objective and academic standpoint. With cancer, it was no different until I found out I myself had cervical cancer. This whole experience made me see beyond just the surface level of facts and hypothetical scenarios I was being taught to treat. It made my education personal for me and brought to my attention a new side of medicine that no amount of school would prepare me to become a part of. The patient’s side.
Cervical cancer has a tendency to present symptoms pretty late in its development so it was not that surprising that I had no idea there even was a chance I had it. I was scheduled to have a routine Pap smear which revealed I had cells on my cervix infected with the HPV virus which goes to show the necessity of routine screening. Given the language barrier between the doctor and I, it was difficult for me to gauge the severity of the situation but was later able to use my school resources to educate myself more on the virus and its progression. The chances of the infected cells developing a cancerous state at my age was highly improbable but after several more biopsies, that unfortunately was the case.
Although physically I felt alright apart from some fatigue and minor weight loss, mentally my mind was constantly occupied with fear, worry, and dread of what was to come. The procedure done to remove these cancerous cells is fairly simple and is conducted either under local or general anesthesia. I had mine done a month after getting my diagnosis with the use of local anesthetic. This was not a typical procedure as I learned on the spot that an anesthesiologist was not available for me at the time where normally general anesthesia is preferred. As luck would have it, scheduled for the day before one of my medical school exams which only added more stress to the experience, an additional challenge I never even knew to consider when having cancer. As expected, the procedure was incredibly painful and mentally taxing afterward. It took about a month of occasional bleeding and general discomfort before I was fully recovered.
When dealing with gynecological cancers affecting reproductive organs like the uterus or ovary, loss of fertility or the ability to carry a pregnancy can certainly bring about an entire new set of challenges and emotions.
My own fertility had never been something I’d given much thought to and was thankfully never in a situation where I had to. This is not the case for many other women with cancers much more severe than mine. When dealing with gynecological cancers affecting reproductive organs like the uterus or ovary, loss of fertility or the ability to carry a pregnancy can certainly bring about an entire new set of challenges and emotions. These women are confronted with difficult questions about topics they never thought about before. This, along with worries about the decisions they make and if they align with their own beliefs and desires for the future. There are several options to consider such as egg-freezing and in vitro fertilization (IVF) as well as surrogacy and adoption. Personally, if confronted with such an array of choices, egg-freezing would certainly be something I would like to do as having my own biological children is important to me. This is also something I realized with my own cancer experience, which even though it was never a choice I had to make, still gave me the opportunity to consider what I value. The decision-making process is of course very different for every woman with various types of cancers but it is important to remember there is no wrong answer when it comes to each individual’s future.
Throughout the entire process, from the first Pap smear results to the surgery, I was lucky enough to have a support system of people who truly made an effort to step up and be there for me. In spite of this, I couldn’t help but still feel incredibly alone. This gave me some perspective on what people with more severe cancers, especially gynecologic, experience on a much larger scale and showed me the importance of having the support of medical staff as well as friends and family. Having a good bedside manner as a doctor and treating patients with respect especially when working with female patients in gynecology makes a monumental difference for the mental state of the patient. This unfortunately, was something I did not experience enough and feel as though it would have made a tremendous difference in my attitude towards the challenges to come. It is my hope that other young women finding themselves in the same position as me are given the guidance and support they need and know that they are not alone. Cervical cancer should not make you perceive yourself as weak or lesser than, on the contrary, it can enable you to prove to yourself how strong you truly are.
An important cheat sheet from our Reproductive Health Report, please remember to get screenings:
Join us at the Museum Of The Future for DeSci Summit Dubai 🧬🌎
Something about talking ReproTech at the Museum of the Future feels extremely fitting for AthenaDAO. Our core lead Laura Minquini will be speaking at the DeSci Summit Dubai organized by VitaDAO on Tuesday, April 16th about fertility, crypto, and how ReproTech is needed to take us to Mars. 🧬🪩
Join us for breakfast in San Francisco ☕️
In San Francisco on Tuesday, April 16th, 2024? Join us at 10 am PT for our first “Let’s Talk Fertility” breakfast in the Bay Area!
We’re having an event in Dubai 🪩
We’ll be hosting an event in Dubai on Wednesday, April 17th before TOKEN 2049. Join our Telegram to keep updated about the event details.
We’ll be at TOKEN 2049 in Dubai 🇦🇪
We are thrilled to join ‘The Verified Dubai 2024’ hosted by 0x499, co-hosted by NEAR and Paramita VC, and special partner by Binance on Wednesday, April 17th. We’ll be talking DeSci and how we can leverage DAOs to bring accelerate us into the future.