Parental perspective on the risk of infertility and fertility preservation options for children and adolescents with sickle cell disease considering hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

BACKGROUND

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) performed in children from human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-identical related donors is associated with very high survival rates and disease-free survival. Patients are exposed to gonadotoxic alkylating agents or irradiation in the HCT conditioning regimen. Consequently, infertility is a major long-term complication of HCT for sickle cell disease (SCD). We sought to understand how caregivers perceive the risk of infertility from HCT, how they perceive the options for fertility preservation, and how this risk perception impacted their decision-making to pursue HCT.

PROCEDURES: We conducted qualitative interviews with primary caregivers after a consultation for HCT for SCD. Data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative analysis.

RESULTS

We interviewed 19 primary caregivers who had attended a consultation with an HCT physician (female, age 25-59 [median 39] years). Eleven participants reported that their child had an available HLA-matched donor. Analysis revealed that (i) mothers were worried about death and graft-versus-host disease from HCT, more than about the risk of infertility; (ii) parents have a realistic understanding of the risk of infertility after HCT and take it into consideration in decision-making; (iii) parents report multiple barriers to fertility preservation.

CONCLUSION

For parents actively considering HCT for their child with SCD, the risk of infertility while important was not a barrier to pursuing HCT. Inconvenience and invasiveness of fertility preservation procedures are some of the barriers to pursuing fertility preservation for their child. Future research must aim at addressing these barriers to fertility preservation.