Shannen Doherty says she ‘desperately’ wanted a baby via IVF amid her cancer battle

As she continues fighting stage four cancer, Shannen Doherty is getting candid about her experiences on her new podcast, Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty. In the Jan. 1 episode, the actress opened up about how she “desperately” wanted a baby, sharing that she underwent IVF treatments with her ex-husband before receiving her cancer diagnosis.

In a conversation with her oncologist, Dr. Lawrence Piro, Doherty shared that when she was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, she believed that IVF might have been linked to her cancer, which led her to decline certain treatments despite her doctor’s recommendations.

Doherty and her ex-husband, Kurt Iswarienko, were trying to get pregnant when she found out she had breast cancer. “I believed that the reason why I got cancer was because I did IVF,” she admitted. “I met my husband at the time later in years and a multitude of things happened, and so when it was time to have that decision, we needed IVF and I did a bunch of rounds of it.”

As for why she held that belief, she said, “A lot of other women that I knew that did IVF that ended up getting breast cancer as well, sort of the numbers all started stacking up in my head. If you sort of have a cell that’s a little wonky and that’s sitting on the edge of maybe turning, spreading cancer — blah, blah, blah — that all the hormones that you’re pumping into your body from IVF are only going to up that chance. That was at least my thinking.” 

After she went into remission in 2017, Doherty’s care team recommended she try the cancer drug Tamoxifen, which she declined. “When I got the, ‘You’re all clear’ remission after chemo and all of that, I knew I wasn’t doing IVF anymore because I was already in menopause,” she said.

“I don’t want to say that I made a very uninformed decision, I’m a researcher, I’m hardcore,” she continued. “My decision was, at the time, based on sort of the facts that I knew, that I had investigated, and you in fact did keep on encouraging me to take the Tamoxifen and I was like, ‘Absolutely not.'”

At the time, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum still “desperately” wanted a baby. “Not only did I want a child for myself, but I wanted it for my husband, I wanted it for our marriage, I wanted him to have that part of himself fulfilled as well,” she said of her ex-husband. “It seemed like a calculated risk that wasn’t too bad of one to take.”

Doherty’s breast cancer returned in 2020, but this time, it was stage four, and it has since spread to her brain and bones. The 52-year-old filed for divorce from Iswarienko in 2023 after his reported infidelity during her cancer fight.

Our hearts remain with Doherty as she continues her fight, and she’s no doubt making other people who have experienced cancer and chronic illness feel a little less alone in what they might have gone through. Wishing her nothing but good health, healing, and all the love in 2024 and beyond.