Fertility Preservation Support for Cancer Patients

The programme was successfully launched in 2023 with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of FP, supporting the costs, psychological impact and helping to alleviate some of the stresses associated with this aspect of the young adult cancer patients’ cancer diagnosis. 

This programme is supported by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Reproduction Units of The University of Hong Kong (Queen Mary Hospital) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Prince of Wales Hospital) with fertility counselling and assessment of clinical validity of the options for FP include egg, embryo or ovarian tissue freezing for women and sperm freezing for men. The applicant is required to hold a Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card and be aged 18 to 35 years old, living in Hong Kong permanently; and a newly diagnosed cancer patient. No financial proof is required. We sponsor the cost of FP including standard drugs for ovarian stimulation, laboratory charge for sperm/ oocyte/ embryo/ ovarian tissue handling and freezing fee for two years. The maximum grant of each application is subject to the type of FP chosen as shown in the table below, and will be reimbursed according to the actual expenses reported by the corresponding collaborating parties. The costs illustrated below are very nominal rates specially set for this programme by the two universities and corresponding hospitals.

We spent nearly HK$240,000 and successfully supported 25 eligible clients with 18 (72%) male and 7 (28%) female with age ranging from 13 to 34 years old. 16 clients (64%) were handled by the HKU and 9 clients (36%) were handled by the CUHK. All applicants were registered and treated as our YOU CAN members, and are under designated case workers’ care.

Links:

• Fertility Preservation Hong Kong Cancer Fund