Decisional Conflict of Young Cancer Patients With Regard to Fertility Preservation

Women who are diagnosed with cancer during their reproductive lifespan might be confronted with impaired fertility. Nowadays a number of fertility preservation options are available. Decisions about whether and how to protect fertility have to be made in a very short time period, right after cancer diagnosis and before start of treatment. The psychological impact for patients is considerable. This project aims at developing a standardized decision-aid tool to support the decision-making process about fertility preservation in young cancer patients. It is designed as an online decision-aid tool. A web-based tool is perfectly designed for this target group and offers new possibilities providing flexible and individually tailored information. The aim of the study is to examine the benefits of the online decision-aid tool compared with standard counseling (usual care). Decisional conflict is measured immediately after counseling as well as one month later. One year after counseling, decisional regret is being evaluated additionally. If the decision-aid tool proves to be helpful and useful, the online design allows making it available for a wide range of concerned patients.