When Natasha Eaton first felt a lump on her breast, her first thought was of cancer and she sought advice from her GP straight away.
“I was just on the phone to a friend one night, ran my hand down the side of my breast and found a lump,” Eaton tells Women’s Agenda.
“I hadn’t had lumpy boobs my whole life up to that point, so I knew that it was more than likely not going to be a benign cyst or something like that,” she said, adding that she’d thought to herself “this is going to be cancer, for sure.”
When Eaton’s GP confirmed her suspicions, he told her she would need to begin chemotherapy straight away as the breast cancer was trip negative.
Just 18 months prior, Eaton had opened her own photography business, so when it came to starting chemo, all she could think was “I don’t have time for this” as she wondered what she was going to do.
Her mother had previously undergone treatment for ovarian cancer, so Eaton knew that chemotherapy might affect her fertility. She was only thirty-two at the time and was certain that she wanted to become a mother.
Some treatments for breast cancer, such as chemotherapy and hormone therapy, may induce premature menopause and can reduce a woman’s chance of having children in the future.
Knowing this, Eaton stood her ground when it came to investigating options to preserve her fertility. Her GP referred her to a surgeon in Sydney, whose medical oncologist was Professor Fran Boyle AM.
“I had, basically, a breakdown at the surgeon’s office and said, ‘You know, I can’t start chemotherapy, I want to be a mother. There has to be something we can do about this’,” she said to the surgeon, who then referred her to speak to Professor Boyle about her fertility options.
Eaton says it was then decided that she’d have her lumpectomy before starting chemotherapy. She did an egg retrieval as well.
Understanding how important it was to Eaton to become a mother, Professor Boyle also referred her to be part of the POEMS Clinical Trial conducted in Australia and New Zealand by Breast Cancer Trials.
POEMS (Prevention of Early Menopause Study) offered a new treatment option for women with breast cancer to better preserve their fertility during cancer treatment. It took women between the ages of 18 and 49 with breast cancer who were receiving chemotherapy and gave them the drug goserelin (sold under the brand name Zoladex) every four weeks.
Essentially, Zoladex puts the body into menopause that can be reversed after treatment, and for Eaton, it proved very successful.
She fell unexpectedly pregnant six months after finishing treatment, with her son Jack, who’s now 14 years old.
“I was absolutely over the moon,” says Eaton. “It was such a surprise, and we weren’t trying or anything like that, it just happened.”
Eaton is grateful that she advocated for her own fertility ahead of her cancer treatment, and she wants other women to not be afraid to ask their doctors questions.
“Don’t just say ‘okay’ because a doctor recommends something, because if I had done that, my outcome probably wouldn’t have been the way it is,” Eaton says.
“My fertility was important to me, so I stood my ground,” she says. And now, sixteen years on and she is cancer free, living happy and healthy with her son.
“It is a journey that you don’t really get over, but it lessens as the years go on.”
You can watch Natasha and leading Australian researchers discuss the latest in fertility preservation during breast cancer treatment, in a free and online Q&A hosted by Breast Cancer Trials, that was moderated by Author and Journalist Annabel Crabb. Click here to watch.