International Journal of Hematology and Oncology 2023, Vol 33, Num 4 Page(s): 145-152
Fertility After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: A 23-Year Review From A Tertiary Hospital

Pinar ATACA ATILLA1, Erden ATILLA1, Elif EDIBOGLU2, Sinem C. BOZDAG1, Selami K. TOPRAK1, Onder ARSLAN1, Muhit OZCAN1, Gunhan GURMAN1, Pervin TOPCUOGLU1

1Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Hematology, TURKEY
2Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Ankara, TURKEY

Keywords: Allogeneic stem cell transplantation, Fertility
Infertility is a major late side effect after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). However, healthy pregnancies and births were reported previously. We retrospectively evaluated the fertility of 107 adult patients who underwent Allo-HSCT (median age: 32.3) between 1989-2012 at our center and survived 2 years or more after transplantation. From totally 29 pregnancies (21 partners of male patients vs 8 female patients), 6 of the female patients (14%) and 20 of the male patients (45%), had a child after Allo-HSCT. The benign nature of the initial diagnosis, lack of chemotherapy regimen before transplantation, early age and no relapse of the primary disease contribute to fertility in our study. No relation was detected between the myeloablative conditioning regimen, radiotherapy prior to Allo-HSCT, TBI usage and frequency, and development of acute and chronic GVHD with infertility.