Objective: To determine the feasibility of asking women undergoing fertility treatment the maximum increased risk of ovarian cancer they would 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 in Toronto.
Patient(s): Sixty-one English-speaking women were approached and 85% (n = 52) were enrolled.
Intervention(s): A self-administered questionnaire with fertility-specific questions. Thirty-eight women also were asked to complete standardized scales of anxiety and optimism.
Main outcome measure(s): Women's report of the maximum level of lifetime risk of ovarian cancer they were willing to tolerate in order to undergo fertility treatment.
Result(s): Seventy-nine percent were willing to accept an increased risk of ovarian cancer. Only 24% understood that treatment for ovarian cancer usually was not curative.
Conclusion(s): A majority of patients were willing to tolerate a modest increase in their lifetime risk of ovarian cancer because of fertility treatment, most basing their estimate of acceptable risk on limited awareness of the issue.