A breast cancer diagnosis prompted this young woman to freeze her eggs before cancer treatment

Kristen describes herself as an eternal optimist by nature. “My biggest strength is positivity,” says this 23-year-old from Iota, a small town between Lafayette and Lake Charles. But when a breast cancer diagnosis in June 2024 rocked her world, she was determined not to let it get the best of her, or compromise a future family. She opted for freezing her eggs before cancer treatment.
As an employee of a corporate health and wellness company that advocates annual health screenings, Kristen knew the importance of breast checks. “Breast cancer runs in my family, so it’s always been in the back of my mind,” she says. Her aunt had breast cancer at 30 and her grandmother also had it. Kristen also did genetic testing in 2019 that showed she did not have a genetic link to breast cancer.
Yet, doing her own breast check in late March 2024, she felt a small lump. Her doctor felt strongly that it was likely just a cyst and scheduled her for an ultrasound. But Kristen put it off. She had an upcoming trip to New York with a friend, and after her return she met a guy through that mutual friend and they began seeing each other. When she finally scheduled the ultrasound two months later, she was immediately instructed to do a mammogram. Then a needle biopsy. Soon after, on June 26th, she was diagnosed with Stage 1B invasive ductal carcinoma. And her own, personal cancer journey began.
Egg freezing provides young cancer patients the opportunity to preserve fertility
At first Kristen was shocked with this diagnosis given that her prior genetic testing was negative for an inherited breast cancer. “I remember laughing at first because it felt so unreal,” Kristen says. “But have I told that my greatest strength is positivity?” Focusing on the bright side of her diagnosis – that it was caught early and had not yet spread to her lymph nodes – she immediately jumped into action. Not wasting any time, she made a plan on what she needed to do first.
The next few weeks were a jumble of doctor appointments, more tests and waiting on her pathology report so that her doctors could decide on a treatment plan. While waiting for her oncologists to make a decision about treatment, Kristen took matters into her own hands as far as her future fertility and began looking into freezing her eggs before cancer treatment. Because cancer treatment therapies often damage a woman’s reproductive organs, many choose egg freezing to give them added insurance so they can build a family in the future.
“One thing I knew from the start of this was that I was not willing to compromise my fertility,” says Kristen. “I love kids and know I am meant to be a mom someday. I was not going to put that in jeopardy.” So with that determination, she scheduled a consultation with Fertility Answers in early August to discuss egg freezing.
Cancer patients receive priority scheduling at Fertility Answers

“Originally, I was told my plan would likely be surgery first, then start chemo and then radiation. This would have given me a cushion in terms of time to get the egg freezing done,” says Kristen. But when she met with the breast surgeon, she decided that doing chemotherapy right away should be Kristen’s first step. Based on the newly released pathology report, surgery would need to come later, the surgeon said, since the tumor had advanced more than she liked.
With this sudden change of plans, this left no more than two weeks for Kristen to freeze her eggs. For egg freezing to occur, a woman needs to be in the right place in her cycle and then take medication anywhere from 10 to 14 days to stimulate the ovaries to mature multiple eggs. After stimulation the egg retrieval procedure can then take place. The entire process can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks depending on cycle timing.
Because cancer treatment often can’t wait, as in Kristen’s case, Fertility Answers was able to get her in immediately. Meeting with IVF coordinator Suzanne Thibodeaux in our Lafayette office, Kristen worried that she wouldn’t have enough time to begin the egg freezing process before chemo needed to start. Suzanne fast-tracked Kristen’s lab work to see if they could start treatment immediately. Luckily, they discovered that Kristen was exactly where she needed to be in her cycle to start right away.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Kristen immediately began the process to freeze her eggs. She started stimulation medications for the egg freeze on Tuesday, August 20th, had her port placed for chemo on Friday the 23rd, and on Saturday the 24th she had her baseline ultrasound for the egg freeze. Ten days later on August 31st, over Labor Day weekend, she went in for her egg retrieval. During the procedure, 27 eggs were retrieved, 12 of which were mature enough to freeze.
Egg freezing before cancer treatment provides hope
“I am so lucky with how things turned out. In hindsight, I couldn’t have waited any longer to begin chemo.” That’s because by the time Kristen started chemotherapy on September 5th, the tumor in her breast had already grown to the size of a lime. She will eventually have 6 months of chemotherapy, followed by a year of immunotherapy, surgery, and eventually radiation. “Hopefully I’ll never have to use the eggs that I froze, but it gives me so much hope to know that they are there if I need them,” says Kristen.
One part of her egg freezing journey that surprised Kristen was discovering that her insurance covered the cost. This is due to the passage of a new law in Louisiana that requires private insurance companies in the state of Louisiana to cover the cryopreservation of reproductive genetic material before cancer treatment. “I was happily surprised that this was covered. When I started all of this, I was really worried about how I was going to pay for it out of pocket.”
Kristen is thankful for the support of her family and friends during her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Her mom comes to all of her appointments and chemotherapy infusions, buys tons of pink merchandise, and even got her first tattoo of a butterfly and pink ribbon in support of Kristen’s journey. Her amazing group of friends are also a huge source of comfort and support. One of her best friends, for whom she will be maid of honor in her January wedding, recently had her entire office dress in pink in support for one of her chemotherapy days.
And that guy she put off her initial ultrasound for? He’s still around and one of her biggest supporters. “He didn’t even blink an eye when I was diagnosed just a month after we started seeing each other,” says Kristen.