THE FEASIBILITY OF ASSESSING WOMENS PERCEPTIONS OF THE RISKS AND BENEFITS OF FERTILITY DRUG-THERAPY IN RELATION TO OVARIAN-CANCER RISK

Objective: To determine the feasibility of asking women undergoing fer tility treatment the maximum increased risk of ovarian cancer they wou ld be willing to tolerate in order to take ovulation-induction drugs. Design: A prospective pilot study of women attending fertility clinics over a 2-month period. Setting: Two tertiary care fertility clinics i n Toronto. Patient(s): Sixty-one English-speaking women were approache d and 85% (n = 52) were enrolled. Intervention(s): A self-administered questionnaire with fertility-specific questions. Thirty-eight women a lso were asked to complete standardized scales of anxiety and optimism . Main Outcome Measure(s): Women's report of the maximum level of life time risk of ovarian cancer they were willing to tolerate in order to undergo fertility treatment. Result(s): Seventy-nine percent were will ing to accept an increased risk of ovarian cancer. Only 24% understood that treatment for ovarian cancer usually was not curative. Conclusio n(s): A majority of patients were willing to tolerate a modest increas e in their lifetime risk of ovarian cancer because of fertility treatm ent, most basing their estimate of acceptable risk on limited awarenes s of the issue. (C) 1997 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine .