For Giuliana and Bill Rancic, celebrating Father’s Day is a particularly special occasion. Following Giuliana’s battle with breast cancer, the couple struggled with fertility but now are making new memories with their son Duke.
On Instagram, TV personality Giuliana Rancic, 45, shared a photo of her husband Bill Rancic holding their son Duke to celebrate Father’s Day. In the post, Rancic thanked her husband for being a incredible father and role model to their son, and the couple celebrated yet another year of parenthood.
Read MoreGiuliana And Bill Rancic’s Cancer Journey And Fertility Struggles
In 2011, just when the Rancic’s were making plans to start a family, Guiliana was diagnosed with breast cancer. While a cancer diagnosis is always shocking news, Rancic’s diagnosis was particularly unexpected since she had no history of cancer in her family. However, thanks to the support of her husband Bill, the couple were able to cope with the news and Giuliana underwent a double mastectomy for treatment.
However, by deciding treatment, the Rancic family had to have tough conversations concerning having a child. The Rancics had been seeing a fertility specialist before the diagnosis the reason she found out about the cancer was her specialist had prescribed a mammogram and certain cancer treatments can have an effect on fertility issues. And she was told, Rancic said, that the medicine she'd be getting would prevent her from getting pregnant for five years.
"It's very important to ask any question that's on your mind," Giuliana said. "If it matters to you, that's all that matters. When you're there in a doctor's office, that is your opportunity to ask the questions that you want the answers to … if one of them is about your fertility journey, ask that question."
Luckily for the couple, Giuliana had gone through the first step of in-vitro fertilization and had embryos. Thanks to a surrogate, the Rancics welcomed their son Duke to their family in 2012.
Children Are Possible After Cancer: Advice From Those Who’ve Gone Through It
Rancic was diagnosed when she was just 36 years old. Now 45, she has some advice for others going through the cancer journey and much of it involves advocating for your own health, and seeking out the best care that is available to you. For Rancic, those questions involved asking about fertility preservation, since she and husband, Bill, were trying to conceive before she was diagnosed with cancer and were still hoping to have a child after getting through the cancer journey. Because their fertility options were discussed upfront, the couple was able to have their son Duke.
Related: Fertility Preservation After a Cancer Diagnosis
Giuliana Racic’s advice to those going through cancer treatment
Similar to Rancic, many women who are battling cancer but want to have a family in the future will freeze their eggs. However, all bodies can be different, and some women may choose to go through egg donor options for fertility.
This was the case for Hillary Redwine, 40, who was diagnosed with stage 1c ovarian cancer in 2007. Her diagnosis prompted her and her husband of five years to make some critical life decisions quick. They had discussed having children in the future, but Redwine's ovarian cancer diagnosis kicked the conversation into high gear. While consulting with her oncologist and undergoing infertility treatments, Redwine decided to use an egg donor. Fast forward to now, Redwine, her husband, and their four year old daughter are taking full advantage of the time they have together.
Related: After A Cancer Diagnosis: Getting Fertility Hormone Injections
“[Having children] was something that we were thinking about in the future, but not planning on for a couple of years,” Redwine told SurvivorNet. “So when I was diagnosed, that really put that issue front and center I feel lucky that my oncologist brought that up. He said that if he didn’t see cancer anywhere else, if there was no evidence anywhere else in my body, then he felt confident that he could just remove my left ovary, and I could have chemotherapy– so essentially, a fertility-sparing surgery that would allow me to hopefully go and have children in the future. Our path to becoming parents was certainly not a conventional one. We went through infertility treatment, tried different things, and ultimately decided to pursue using an egg donor. Our story, fortunately, has a happy ending.”
Ovarian cancer survivor Hillary Redwine explains her fertility options after cancer treatment
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