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A woman whose ovaries were removed amid cancer treatment gave birth to identical twins after an amazing fertility journey. Shelly Battista had a double mastectomy and the removal of her ovaries to treat her aggressive cancer.
Shelly noticed a lump in her breast while she was pumping milk for her first child, daughter Emelia. At first, she believed it to be a clogged milk duct, but the lump didn’t go away.
The 34-year-old, who has a six-month baby with her husband Robert, was then told she had “triple-negative breast cancer”, a shocking revelation for the young family.
Shelly told NBC: “We were just starting our life together, and we get this shocking news.”
The couple worked with Chicago doctor Dr. Kara Goldman, a reproductive endocrinologist and medical director of fertility preservation at Northwestern Fertility and Reproductive Medicine, who helped them fulfill their dream to have a large family despite Shelly’s diagnosis.
The couple knew they wanted more children, but the chemotherapy treatment for advanced breast cancer is toxic to the ovaries.
As such, the couple was advised by their doctor to have fertility treatments before chemotherapy and surgery, and they produced and froze eight embryos.
After 12 rounds of chemo, Shelly underwent a double mastectomy, and due to further risk of cancer, she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed as well.
But, since Shelly still had her uterus, she was able to go through with another pregnancy.
Doctors were able to provide the hormones that would have been supplied by Shelly’s ovaries to support the pregnancy.
The couple was thrilled to find their third attempt at implanting an egg has been successful, and not only that but the embryo has split and they were in for twins.
Adorable Nina and Margot were born on 9 December 2022, which also happened to be the two-year anniversary of the day Shelly was declared cancer-free.
Shelly’s husband Robert told Today: “It’s like the best celebration of Shelly’s cancer journey. It’s like, you’ve beaten cancer, and now here’s this extra love you get on top of it. It will be the most important day of the year in our family.”
Shelly said her home is full of “lots of laughs, lots of cries, and lots of laundries. It’s chaotic, but it’s perfect.”
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