A multidisciplinary pediatric oncofertility team improves fertility preservation and counseling across 7 years.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Oncofertility is a developing field of increasing importance, particularly in pediatric oncology, where most patients are likely to survive long-term and have not yet had the opportunity to have children. AIMS: We performed a quality improvement initiative to increase our rates of fertility preservation counseling and referral through the implementation of a pediatric oncofertility team, and we report outcomes 7 years following implementation of our initiative. METHODS AND RESULTS: We compare our baseline oncofertility survey to 44 post-intervention survey respondents and electronic medical record documentation for 149 patients treated in 2019. Ninety-five percent of post-intervention survey respondents recalled fertility counseling (baseline 70%, p = .004) and 89.3% were appropriately referred for fertility preservation (baseline 50%, p = .017). Counseling was documented in 60.4% of charts; 81% of patients analyzed by chart review were appropriately referred for fertility preservation. Fertility preservation outcomes differed by sex assigned at birth. CONCLUSION: Creation of an oncofertility team produced improvements in fertility counseling and fertility preservation referral across an extended period of time.