Page 37 - IJPS-11-5

International Journal of

Population Studies

PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE
Addressing the psychological impact of

infertility risk arising from breast cancer
treatment: Education and self-compassion

interventions

Rory D. Colman * and Yasuhiro Kotera 2†
1†
1 College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby, Derbyshire,
United Kingdom
2 School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

Abstract
Breast cancer incidence is increasing globally, including populations of childbearing age.
Infertility risk from cancer treatment can negatively impact mental health in breast cancer
patients and survivors, in part due to a lack of understanding of the risk and mitigation
† These authors contributed equally options ahead of treatment. In this commentary, recent literature on understanding
to this work.
of breast cancer treatment risk to infertility is reviewed, and recommendations are
*Corresponding author: made for improving knowledge for at-risk populations. In addition, we propose a novel
Rory D. Colman
(r.colman@derby.ac.uk) integration of self-compassion interventions be applied within breast cancer clinical
care, building on groundwork from both breast cancer and primary infertility research
Citation: Colman, R.D., &
Kotera, Y. (2025). Addressing areas that indicate the psychological benefits of self-compassion. Considerations for the
the psychological impact of application of self-compassion interventions to address fertility concerns within breast
infertility risk arising from breast cancer patient and survivor populations are discussed.
cancer treatment: Education and
self-compassion interventions.
International Journal of Population Keywords: Breast cancer; Breast cancer understanding; Infertility; Reproductive health;
Studies, 11(5): 31-37.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1724 Self-compassion; Mental health
Received: August 30, 2023
1st revised: March 12, 2024
2nd revised: May 17, 2024 1. Introduction
Accepted: May 20, 2024 It is the purpose of this perspective article to offer a commentary of prevailing
Published online: July 17, 2024 knowledge regarding understanding of infertility risk following breast cancer treatment
and suggest potential interventions to help breast cancer patients and survivors cope
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article with the psychological impacts of this risk. These include improving access to fertility
distributed under the terms of the preservation information ahead of treatment and offering a self-compassion intervention
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution, as adjunct to cancer treatment.
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in females across the
properly cited. lifespan (Cardoso et al., 2019). Incidence is increasing in many phases of women’s
Publisher’s Note: AccScience lives. Between 25% and 55% of total breast cancer diagnoses occur in pre-menopausal
Publishing remains neutral with females, depending on the geographical regions (Paluch-Shimon et al., 2022). In recent
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional reviews of breast cancer understanding amongst the general population (Wang et al.,
affiliations. 2022) and university students internationally (Colman et al., 2023), a marked lack of

Volume 11 Issue 5 (2025) 31 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1724