Women who fight cancer are also at risk of losing their fertility, but a doctor said a drug used to treat prostate cancer might also help save fertility in female patients.

Triptorelin is a drug that is injected each month into the patient while undergoing chemotherapy treatments, temporarily shutting down the ovaries.

"The hope is that we try to get the ovaries out of the cycling and, therefore, by shutting it down, shutting its function down, we try to preserve the damage to it," said Dr. Pamela Munster, a medical oncologist.

A small study using 138 women proved the treatment works, with 80 percent of the women beginning their menstrual cycle within a year.

Triptorelin has also been tested in women undergoing treatment for lymphomas and other types of cancer.

For more information, go to www.moffitt.usf.edu