“You have breast cancer.” 

I was 35 years old when these words shook me to my core. My mind vacillating between fear, logistics, and disbelief. I could barely comprehend when I heard ‘chemotherapy for aggressive triple negative breast cancer had to begin before the new year.’ Not quite the New Year’s Eve plan I had envisioned. 

Nothing can prepare you for a cancer diagnosis. Everything feels overwhelming and comes at warp speed. In a matter of days, I was asked to make life-altering decisions, while grief and terror consumed nearly every thought. One word rose above the rest of the noise: Survival. I didn’t know yet the treatment necessary to target my cancer could also destroy my ability to conceive a child. Luckily, for future patients, there is a bill in Arizona this session that addresses this exact issue — giving hope for a future after cancer for young patients. SB1347 would ensure fighting cancer doesn’t mean giving up on having a family.

Many life-saving cancer treatments cause infertility. For women, chemotherapy can permanently damage ovarian function, for men, it can affect sperm production. Fertility preservation may protect the chance to have biological children later. But it must happen before treatment begins. That makes timing critical and pressure immensely intense.

This is the reality for so many young adults diagnosed with cancer. The disease doesn’t just threaten your life, it tries to take control of your future. Cancer doesn’t care about your age, your plans, or whether you hoped to have children one day.

Fertility preservation is expensive and often not covered by insurance. Patients already facing mounting medical bills are asked to come up with thousands of dollars quickly, or risk losing the chance to have biological children. Some nonprofit organizations step in to help, but resources are extremely limited and cannot meet every need. Access should not depend on timing, geography or personal finances.

At one of the darkest moments in a person’s life, the possibility of a future family can be a source of hope. It returns something valuable cancer tries to steal: a sense of direction, of continuity, of life beyond treatment. It restores a measure of control when everything else feels out of your hands.

That’s why legislation like SB 1347 matters.

This bill would require insurance coverage for fertility preservation when cancer treatments threaten reproductive health. It is practical, targeted and compassionate. It gives women and men facing cancer the opportunity to protect their ability to build the families they dream of, after treatment.

We already recognize similar needs in cancer care. Insurance currently covers wigs and breast reconstruction because we understand healing is not purely clinical — it is physical, emotional and personal. Fertility preservation belongs in that same category. It is not a luxury.

The number of patients in this situation each year is small. In other states who have implemented such policies, the impact on premiums was less than a dime a month. This minor cost is money well spent — thankfully, cancer survival rates continue to improve. More young adults are living long, productive lives after cancer. They deserve a chance to have children. 

This issue touches every corner of our state. It could affect your granddaughter, neighbor, nephew, your best friend. Disease does not discriminate, and neither should access to solutions. When we have a medically proven and a financially reasonable way to prevent avoidable loss of fertility, the path forward should be clear.

As a community, we can fix this. We can give more Arizonans the chance to grow their families after cancer. Survivorship stories should include first days of school, graduations, and the hope that becoming a biological parent isn’t one of the many things taken away from you just because you hear the unimaginable words of “you have cancer.”

Whether you have personally been impacted by cancer, or someone you care about has, please join me in encouraging your Arizona state legislators to support SB 1347. 

Lindsey Baker is a Tucson native, nonprofit consultant, and patient advocate dedicated to strengthening nonprofits and community organizations so they can better serve their missions.