Kimaya Salaskar T Kimaya's Pink Crusader Patient Story

“I am looking forward to having a child but nothing is guaranteed, and what is meant to happen will happen.”

When Kimaya Salaskar was told she had breast cancer, her main concern was having children. Until recently, cancer treatments such as chemotherapy often made having children impossible. Recent advances in fertility care can provide opportunities for egg preservation before treatment.

In November 2012, Kimaya felt a lump in her left breast. At the time, she was 34 years old and ignored it. A month later, she told her husband, Manoj, who forced her to see her doctor and get tested. A biopsy confirmed she had invasive ductal carcinoma, which was between stages 2 and 3. There was a chance that it had spread to her lymph nodes so Kimaya expressed her fears about infertility. Her breast surgeon told her about the option to freeze her eggs or embryos for the future.

Kimaya began the egg harvesting process immediately. Her eggs were harvested within three weeks, and she began chemotherapy soon after. Following chemotherapy, Kimaya had a lumpectomy followed by six weeks of radiation treatment. She and her husband successfully froze several embryos, but they may not need them, as it turned out that in her case, treatment did not leave her infertile.