Q&As

Every year around 70,000 young adults are diagnosed with cancer, and many of them will undergo treatments that will make them infertile, according to Critical Mass: The Young Adult Cancer Alliance.

Emily Dumler, mother of three, found blood in her stool one day in August of 2013, called her doctor, and went to urgent care. She wound up being immediately admitted to the hospital with an extremely low blood platelet count, and only obtained her diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after a stay of 43 days. She began chemotherapy, but relapsed seven months later, and moved on to the next line of treatment: a stem cell transplant.

Noel Rademacher noticed the first sign of her ovarian cancer in August 2012 when she struggled to zip up her wedding dress. The dress had fit perfectly only a few weeks before, but now it was extremely tight around her abdomen even though she hadn’t gained any weight.

A week later, on her honeymoon in Bora Bora with her husband, Thomas, Noel started feeling intense pressure to urinate even when her bladder was empty.