For Patients with Sickle Cell Disease, Fertility Care is About Reproductive Justice
Sickle cell disease affects an estimated 100,000 people in the U.S. and the vast majority of them are Black. Federal and charitable dollars dedicated to sickle cell pale in comparison to other less common diseases that affect a majority white patients.
Physicians and researchers say the disease is a stark example of the health inequities which pervade the U.S. health system. A poignant expression of this, patient advocates say, is the silence around the impact on fertility, and lack of reproductive and sexual health care for the young people living with this complex disease
For women, chronic inflammation and sickling of blood cells in the ovaries can make it harder to get pregnant. For men, sickled blood can jam inside the blood vessels of the penis, and that can cause painful, unwanted erections which last for hours. This condition, called priapism, can damage sexual function and decrease sperm count.
And it's not just the disease. Researchers are evaluating how some widely-used treatments may affect fertility — for example by decreasing sperm count.
