title: Young female cancer patients' experiences with fertility counselling and fertility preservation-a qualitative small-scale study within the Danish health care setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Fertility counselling for young women newly diagnosed with cancer is an important field of preconceptional counselling. This qualitative, small-scale study explored how young women newly diagnosed with cancer experienced specialized fertility preservation counselling and treatment in the public Danish health care system.
  
  
  METHODS
  Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with five women below 40 years recently diagnosed with cancer. All women received fertility counselling by a fertility specialist at the Fertility Clinic, University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark before initiation of cancer treatment. Participants were interviewed at a place chosen by them, and interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using systematic text condensation developed by Malterud and inspired by Giorgi's phenomenological analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  None of the participants were aware that chemotherapy could destroy their eggs. The participants described how specialized fertility counselling and fertility preservation contributed to a belief in life after cancer, which gave them hope that they would survive their cancer disease. Further, the women described how the possibility of fertility preservation removed a huge concern and enabled them to concentrate on their cancer treatment and on getting better.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, the specialized fertility counselling and treatment to preserve fertility was highly valued. The women felt it gave them a choice about their future fertility. The fertility expert presented the various fertility-preserving scenarios, and the women were content that they had an actual choice.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Public Health , Section of Social Medicine, University of Copenhagen , Denmark.
authors.forename: Didde
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hoeg
authors.affiliation: a Department of Public Health , Section of Social Medicine, University of Copenhagen , Denmark.
authors.forename: Lone
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: b The Fertility Clinic, section 4071, University Hospital of Copenhagen , Rigshospitalet , Denmark.
authors.forename: Kirsten T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Macklon
keywords: Cancer; fertility preservation; preconceptional counselling; qualitative method; semi-structured interviews; systematic text condensation