Shannen Doherty - Desire to have children influenced cancer therapy
US actress Shannen Doherty (52) has been battling cancer for almost ten years. Since November, she has also been talking openly about this in her new podcast "Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty". In the latest episode, she describes how her desire to become a mother influenced the course of her cancer treatment. She had herself artificially inseminated several times in order to give herself and her husband Kurt Iswarienko a child.
Doherty was in a relationship with Iswarienko for 14 years and they were married for twelve years. In April 2023, the actress filed for divorce from her third husband after finding out that he was cheating on her with another woman. During their marriage, however, she had a strong desire to get pregnant, she tells her friend and oncologist Dr. Lawrence Piro in the podcast.
She desperately wanted a child
"I not only wanted a child for myself, but also for my husband. I wanted it for our marriage, I wanted that part to come true for him as well," Doherty says in the podcast interview. "I met my husband late in life and as you know, a lot of things happened. When it came time to make a decision, we opted for artificial insemination. I did a couple rounds of it."
Shannen Doherty has been battling breast cancer since 2015, which has metastasized in the meantime. In 2017, she announced that she had the disease under control. In 2020, however, she unfortunately had to announce that she had been diagnosed with cancer again - already at an advanced and incurable stage.
In 2017, she believed that artificial insemination had contributed to her cancer, the 52-year-old now explained in the podcast: "Many other women I knew who had undergone artificial insemination also ended up with breast cancer." Her thoughts were that the "hormones that are pumped through the body through artificial insemination only increase the risk".
How the desire to have children influenced cancer treatment
When she was given the all-clear after chemotherapy that no more tumor remnants could be detected, she no longer wanted to undergo artificial insemination. She had already gone through the menopause and so there was no longer any reason for a pregnancy. However, due to her convictions against artificial insemination in connection with cancer, she had also refused treatment with tamoxifen, a common treatment method for breast cancer that affects the hormone oestrogen in the body. She had not made an "uninformed decision" at the time. "My decision at the time was based on the facts I knew and had researched."
In June 2023, Doherty told the public that she had developed metastases in her brain, and in November 2023, she announced in an interview with People that the cancer had also attacked her bones.
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- Shannen Doherty, despite her battle with cancer, expressed her desire to have children in her podcast, even undergoing artificial insemination several times with her husband Kurt Iswarienko.
- Doherty's strong desire to become a mother influenced her cancer treatment decisions, leading her to avoid tamoxifen, a common hormone-affecting breast cancer treatment.
- In the podcast, Shannen Doherty shared her belief that artificial insemination may have contributed to her initial cancer diagnosis, as she had heard similar stories from other women who had undergone the same procedure.
- The actress, who married Kurt Iswarienko for twelve years before filing for divorce in 2023 due to his infidelity, had a significant desire to have children for her husband's sake as well.
- Kurt Iswarienko, like Shannen Doherty, is a well-known figure, having worked as a photographer for celebrities such as Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, as well as launching his own photography book, "kurt iswarienko: lost love found."
Source: www.stern.de
