Treatments that cause sex hormone symptoms

Some treatments for cancer can affect the levels of sex hormones. This can cause a range of different symptoms. There are things you can do, and there are other treatments to help you cope with these symptoms.

What are sex hormones?

Hormones are natural substances made by the glands of our hormone system. They are carried around our body in our bloodstream. The main female sex hormones are oestrogen and progesterone. The main male sex hormone is testosterone.

Read more information about sex hormones and cancer

Treatments that can affect the levels of sex hormones include:

• surgery

• chemotherapy

• radiotherapy

• hormone treatment

The effect of targeted and immunotherapy cancer drugs on sex hormone levels is not yet clear.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the use of anti cancer drugs (cytotoxics) to destroy cancer cells.

The effects on women

If you haven’t been through the menopause, chemotherapy can stop your ovaries working normally. This depends on:

• the type and dose of chemotherapy drugs you have

• your age

Your periods might stop temporarily. But if you are close to the age when you would naturally have your menopause, the chemotherapy might stop your periods permanently.

Young women treated with chemotherapy might have the menopause earlier. Your doctor will tell you if there is a risk of this happening. You might need to think about planning a family at a younger age because of the risk of early menopause.

There are options to preserve fertility for those who want to have children. One way of preserving fertility is by having the drugs goserelin (Zoladex) or leuprorelin (Prostap) before having chemotherapy. This is called ovarian suppression. These treatments will temporarily shut down the ovaries.

But these are not suitable for everyone. Your doctor will talk to you about this.

Find out more about fertility and chemotherapy

The effects on men

Not all chemotherapy drugs affect testosterone levels. But some can affect the production of testosterone. This can cause symptoms such as a reduced sex drive and tiredness.

Doctors are not clear on how chemotherapy affects testosterone levels. It might depend on:

• the type of chemotherapy you have

• how much chemotherapy you have

• your age at the time of your treatment

A systematic review of studies looked at sexual function in men after treatment for lymphoma. They found that up to 60 out of 100 men (60%) who had treatment for lymphoma had lower sexual function. This was potentially linked to low testosterone levels. But the researchers suggested that we need more research.

Read general information about chemotherapy

Targeted and immunotherapy cancer drugs

Targeted cancer drugs work by targeting the differences in cancer cells that help them to grow and survive. Immunotherapy uses our immune system to attack the cancer.

These treatments are quite new, and the effect on sex hormone levels is not yet clear. Several studies are looking into this.

Find out more about targeted and immunotherapy cancer drugs

You can read more about symptoms, ways to help relieve them, and available treatments.

Living with the effects of hormone therapy for prostate cancer

• Coping with sex hormone symptoms in women