Shannen Doherty opens up about desire to have children despite living with cancer
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Defeating every odd, Shannen Doherty is staying strong amid her battle with stage IV breast cancer. But this long battle has changed her approach toward life. The 'Beverly Hills 90120' star recently opened up about her life after breast cancer including her desire to have children with her husband.
The ‘Charmed’ star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and entered remission two years later. But her cancer returned in 2020 and this time it spread to other parts of her body. During this battle, cancer treatments threw Shannen’s body into early menopause which made her unable to conceive the traditional way. “It’s not possible [for me to get pregnant] because I can’t get out of menopause,” she said in an interview for Health magazine's March issue. “That would require estrogen, and I’m choosing not to take hormone pills — I can’t risk those levels coming up.”
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But all hope is not lost for Doherty when it comes to having children with her husband, Kurt Iswarienko, whom she married in 2011. "We’re having conversations about an egg donor, maybe adoption," she added. "But there’s fear there. Am I going to last five years? Ten years? I certainly wouldn’t want my 10-year-old burying a mother. I’ve always wanted a kid. But maybe I’m supposed to mother in a different way."
Shannen further opened up about her relationship with Kurt while claiming that her condition altered her and Kurt's views on life. "It’s the little things that are making me laugh," she said. "The expressions on my dog’s face. My husband playing air guitar as we walk down the street. It’s all those little moments, the ones that make me smile and feel very joyful that I’m still here to enjoy them,” she added.
Shannen also recalled that one of the scariest moments during this journey was when her hair started to fall out after chemotherapy. “I remember I got in the shower to wash my hair, and it just started coming out in clumps. I started screaming for my mom. I think that was harder than the surgeries,” she said. “It was like, ‘Oh my God, this is real.’ Right away, I made the decision to shave my head. My friend came over, and she shaved it. We laughed, and we cried. She shaved it in stages, so it was like a pageboy, then punk rock, shaved on the sides. It was a fun experience, considering that I was devastated.”
Doherty, then, stated that she has finally learned the art of embracing her ‘strong’ body which helped her get through all this. “I love that my body is strong and that it can fight something like cancer,” she said. “I’m trying to show it more appreciation by going to a nutritionist, Dr. Philip Goglia, and doing strength training and boxing at Box ’N Burn almost every day. Importantly, my perception of sexy has changed. For me now, sexy is strength. Sexy is vulnerability. Sexy is compassion. Sexy is grace. Why should I care so much about the physical shell?”