Childbearing challenges in breast cancer survivors: a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: One of the reproductive health challenges in breast cancer survivors is desire to childbearing that is influenced by many medical and non-medical factors. The social determinants of health are non-medical factors that affect fertility and breast cancer. This study was performed with aim to investigate mediating determinants of childbearing in breast cancer surviving women. Methods: This systematic review study was conducted based on the PRISMA checklist by searching four databases of Pubmed, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus using the Mesh and Emtree standardized keywords including breast neoplasm, survivorship, social determinants of health, reproductive behavior, fertility intention, and their Persian equivalents and their possible combinations in the period of 2008-2023. Results: In total, among the 4542 retrieved articles, 10 studies were included. Among the included studies, 7 were cross-sectional and 3 were cohort studies. Most of the studies used easy and accessible sampling method. The intermediating determinants of health that were examined in a larger number of studies were behavioral factors, biological factors, and psychological factors that were significantly associated with challenges such as increasing the desire and value of motherhood after treatment, the intention to get pregnant, feeling need to have children. Conclusion: The mediating factors that determine childbearing issues of survived breast cancer women include: biological factors, behavioral factors, and psychosocial factors. Considering the limited number of studies conducted in this field, it is recommended to carry out more relational studies in order to accurately diagnose these components with regard to their impact on the general health of this group of women.

Keywords

• social determinants of health
• mediating factors
• breast cancer survivors
• childbearing