Actress Samantha Womack, 50, Says Surviving Cancer Made Her Want To Have Another Baby: ‘I Really Wanted To Do It All Again’

Surviving cancer can change you. For Samantha Womack, 50, it gave her a greater appreciation for her children and the desire to have more.

Womack, best known for starring in the hit soap "EastEnders," was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022. In opening up about her battle, the 50-year-old actress bravely shared an intimate look at both the physical and the mental impacts of a cancer journey.

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"Your breasts are where life comes from, how you feed your children, but they also have to deal with your sexual identity," she said in a recent interview. "When that's attacked, it's not just the disease, it takes all of that away from you temporarily."

 

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Womack has since been told she’s free of the disease, but the whole experience has changed her perspective on life. She’s even considering having more children.

She currently has two kids Benjamin, 21, and Lili-Rose, 18, from her previous marriage but now she’s open to the idea of expanding her family with her boyfriend Oliver Farnworth, 40.

"It's funny, I suddenly really appreciated my kids," she said. "I really wanted to do it all again."

RELATED: Random Check For Soap Opera Star, 50, Leads To Breast Cancer Diagnosis What She Did To Fight

But given her age and the potential effects of cancer treatment on her fertility, Womack is aware that naturally giving birth again might not be in the cards.

"Obviously throughout treatment, your ovaries are challenged because chemo can change your hormonal status, so I don't even know if it would be possible now, post-treatment," she said. "I just suddenly had this real yearning. It was like another little switch.

"Ollie and I talked about it and said, well, never say never. If it's not possible naturally, there are other ways. I just wanted to celebrate life. It might be an effect of the treatment. It might be something that is connected to life making life, being alive. I don't know, I haven't figured it out yet."

Samantha Womack’s Breast Cancer Battle

Samantha Womack was diagnosed with breast cancer after a random doctor's appointment. At the time, she wasn’t experiencing any symptoms.

"There had been a lot of illness around our friends and family and I just thought I'd get a random check and I had an ultrasound, and it showed a little shadow," she said.

Monitoring After Treatment for Breast Cancer

Womack felt grateful her cancer was “less than two centimeters,” but hearing her diagnosis news was understandably overwhelming, nonetheless.

"The mad thing about cancer when you have it, is you understand there are so many different roads, different diagnoses, it is a terrifying world," she said. "It's terrifying at the beginning but if there was ever a time to have it, there are so many new treatments now that are changing the face of cancer, it's amazing."

Two weeks after the appointment that led to her diagnosis, Womack underwent a lumpectomy and lymph node removal. Then came chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Thankfully, Oliver Farnworth was by her side every step of the way.

"He's been incredibly supportive," Womack said. "It's a lot for a partner, you forget that the disease takes over their life as well. We hadn't been together long before the pandemic, and then the cancer came it was a lot for him to take in."

Fertility and Cancer Treatment

Unfortunately, infertility can be caused by some cancer treatments. Thankfully, there are options to consider. The fertility preservation techniques listed below, for example, are available to women of childbearing age:

• Egg and embryo freezing (the most common practice)
• Ovarian tissue freezing
• Ovarian suppression to prevent the eggs from maturing so that they cannot be damaged during treatment.
• Ovarian transposition, for women getting radiation to the pelvis, to move the ovaries out of the line of treatment.

How Does Chemotherapy Affect Fertility?

No matter what you do or don’t decide to do, it’s important for women to feel confident they know their options and comfortable discussing them early. Reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Jaime Knopman says the sooner the better when it comes to having crucial fertility conversations with your doctor.

"The sooner we start, the sooner that patient can then go on and do their treatment," Dr. Knopman said. "A lot of the success comes down to how old you are at the time you froze and the quality of the lab in which your eggs or embryos are frozen in."

READ MORE: Can I Have A Baby After Breast Cancer?

According to SurvivorNet advisor Dr. Elizabeth Comen, women with breast cancer, specifically, should be aware of the following considerations:

• Young women who will undergo chemotherapy may have their fertility significantly affected because many chemo drugs can damage a woman's eggs.
• If women take medication to stop the hormones that feed their specific type of breast cancer, they may not be able to get pregnant for several years in some instances, 10 years.
• Pregnancy is a very, very high hormonal state. So, pregnancy is not recommended for many stage four breast cancer patients because their diseases often need estrogen to grow.

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