Strictly’s Amy Dowden reveals hopes to start a family with husband Ben as she freezes embryos after cancer battle
STRICTLY’S Amy Dowden has revealed that she hopes to start a family with husband Ben Jones after freezing her embryos following her cancer battle.
The 33-year-old was previously told that she could longer conceive naturally due to her cancer diagnosis.
Last May, the star revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
After being diagnosed, she underwent a full mastectomy and finished her chemotherapy at the end of 2023.
She was also told that she had two weeks to create embryos that could be frozen and used once she’s given the all clear.
Now, Amy, cancer-free, has revealed that she and her husband have five embryos frozen.
Amy told Mailonline that the procedure worked, but they can’t try for a child yet because it could stimulate cancer-feeding hormones in her body.
Although she showed no signs of the disease during her recent checkup, Amy has been advised to wait a few years to be on the safe side.
Recollecting her hospital visit where she was diagnosed and given the news that she wont be able to conceive naturally, Amy said: “In the words of ‘Sorry, Amy, you have cancer’, what I found harder was in the next sentence.
“You know, newly married, we’d only been married in July (2022), and this was only in the spring (2023) now.
“And his next sentence was ‘And what’s your fertility plans because unfortunately you’ve got a hormone-fed cancer’ – and I never knew anything about that – and basically ‘We’re gonna have to shut down your hormones’.
“I’m sat there with my husband, and obviously children were on the radar or, you know, plans.
“And that I think was like a double stab to the gut, and what I found probably harder than the words ‘you have cancer’.”
On the Big Fish with Spencer Matthews podcast, Amy spoke more about her embryo freezing experience.
She said: “The NHS offer an incredible service, that once anyone is diagnosed with cancer, and especially if they have to go through chemotherapy, they are offered the chance to have their eggs removed, and put in the freezer.
“Sometimes your body doesn’t respond, because you’re going through cancer. I had a two-week window. And in that two week window, we managed.
“And so we got embryos. Now we’ve got five little Amy and Bens.”
She added: “So hopefully in the future. I’ll have to wait a little bit of time, unfortunately, because I have got a hormone-fed cancer.
“You do develop hormones when you’re pregnant. So yeah, obviously, it’s not when we plan to, but hopefully, I will get the opportunity to.”