The short answer
Some cancer treatments can lower fertility or cause infertility — changes that may be temporary or permanent. Whether your fertility is affected depends on the type and dose of treatment, your age, the type of cancer, and other factors. Because the most effective options to protect fertility usually happen before treatment, it helps to ask early.
Cancer treatments can cause infertility or lower fertility; changes may be temporary or permanent.
Whether fertility is affected depends on the treatment, dose, duration, your age, and other factors.
Chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy, surgery, stem cell transplant, and some other treatments can play a role.
The cancer itself sometimes affects fertility, even before treatment starts.
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This page is for anyone facing cancer treatment who may want children one day. It explains which treatments can affect fertility, why timing matters, and what to ask.
The simple version
Some cancer treatments can lower fertility, the ability to have children. Some can cause infertility. These changes may be temporary or permanent. Not everyone's fertility is affected, but many people's is, so it is worth understanding your own situation early.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) explains how this happens. Treatment can harm the reproductive organs. It can also harm the endocrine glands that make the hormones fertility depends on.
What affects whether fertility changes
Whether your fertility is affected depends on several things:
- The type of cancer treatment, or treatments.
- The amount, or dose, of treatment.
- The length of treatment.
- Your age at the time of treatment.
- How much time has passed since treatment.
- The type of cancer, and whether the tumor is near reproductive organs.
- Your fertility before treatment, including any past fertility problems.
- Other personal health conditions.
So much depends on the details that two people with the same cancer can have very different outcomes.
Treatments that can play a role
NCI describes how different treatments may affect fertility:
- Chemotherapy can harm healthy reproductive cells as well as cancer cells. Some drugs, such as alkylating agents, carry a high risk. High doses, or several drugs at once, can raise the risk.
- Radiation therapy can affect fertility when it is aimed at the reproductive organs, the pelvic region, or the brain and central nervous system. The dose, the area treated, your age, and the type of radiation all matter.
- Hormone therapy, also called endocrine therapy, adds, blocks, or removes hormones. It can affect fertility.
- Surgery on or near reproductive organs can affect fertility. Much depends on the type, size, and location of the tumor.
- Stem cell transplant often follows high doses of chemotherapy, radiation, or both. Those can affect fertility.
- Targeted therapy and immunotherapy are still being studied. Some targeted drugs, called tyrosine kinase inhibitors, may lower fertility.
Ask your team what is known about the specific treatment you may receive.
The cancer itself can matter
Some cancers pose a risk to fertility on their own. Gynecologic cancers are one example. Ovarian, cervical, endometrial, fallopian tube, uterine, and vaginal cancers often need treatment that removes all or part of a reproductive organ. In men, NCI notes that testicular, prostate, and germ cell cancers and Hodgkin lymphoma can sometimes cause low sperm counts at diagnosis.
Why timing matters
The most effective steps to protect fertility usually happen before treatment starts. NCI notes that research found survivors were less regretful if they had met with a fertility specialist. That held whether or not they went on to preserve their fertility.
If having a biological child one day may matter to you, raise the topic early, even when time feels short. Ask how your treatment could affect fertility. Ask for a referral to a fertility specialist to learn about your options.
Birth control during treatment
Even when treatment lowers fertility, pregnancy can still be possible. Some treatments can also harm a pregnancy. For both reasons, your doctor may advise using birth control or condoms during treatment. Your care team can explain what is right for your situation.
Sources
Common questions
Do all cancer treatments affect fertility?
No. Whether fertility is affected depends on the specific treatment, the dose and length of treatment, your age, the type of cancer, and other personal factors. Some people's fertility is not affected.
Are the changes permanent?
They can be temporary or permanent, depending on the treatment and the person. Sometimes fertility returns after treatment; other times the change lasts. Your care team can explain what to expect for your treatment.
Which treatments can affect fertility?
The National Cancer Institute lists chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, surgery, stem cell transplant, and some targeted therapies and immunotherapies as treatments that may affect fertility. The effect depends on the details of the treatment.
Can the cancer itself affect fertility?
Yes. NCI says some cancers can affect fertility on their own. Examples include gynecologic cancers in women, and testicular, prostate, germ cell cancers and Hodgkin lymphoma in men, which can lower sperm counts at diagnosis.
When should fertility be discussed?
As early as possible. The most effective steps to protect fertility usually happen before treatment starts, so raising it early keeps more options open.
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Sources last checked: 2026-08-13 what this meansLast updated: 2026-10-02Next planned review: 2027-01-14
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Cancer Explained does not originate medical claims. Every page restates guidance already published by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the USPSTF and the FDA, in plain language, with the source cited so you can check the original yourself. AI does the translating and organizing; automated checks test claims, citations, clarity and safety before anything publishes, and this is translation and navigation, not clinical judgment. Nothing here is personal medical advice, and no page can account for your particular situation.
Editorial status: Source checked — This page was written with AI assistance and then compared with the sources listed on it, looking for statements those sources do not back up. That check is not a sentence-by-sentence record and can miss errors. It is not a medical review, and it does not confirm the page is complete or right for your situation.
Human medical review: not completed. Pages here are not signed off by a clinician before they publish. That is not an oversight we are quietly working around: we restate published guidance and cite it, so the authority belongs to the source rather than to us, and every page names where its claims come from — you can verify us instead of trusting us. Where a volunteer clinician has reviewed a page, their name and credentials appear on it; where no name appears, no clinician has checked it. We are glad to have reviewers and are recruiting them, and we do not hold pages back waiting for one. Use this site to understand your situation and to ask better questions of the people treating you.
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