Can radiation treatment cause infertility in woman?

Sometimes: If the radiation field encompases the ovaries or a single remaining ovary, then with usual treatment intensity, there is a high liklihood of infertility. To avoid this the radiation fields are usually designed to spare the ovaries but since the ovaries move around in the pelvis somewhat, often surgery is used before the radiation therapy to move and fix the ovaries out of planned radiation area.

Yes: Both chemotherapy and radiation therapy can cause infertility for women. The reason is that both chemotherapy and radiation therapy will damage the ovaries. It will reduce the follicle growth and egg production. These women will not have regular period, or have no period. These effect can be temporally or permanent depends how severe the damage. We recommend fertility preservation before radiation.