Objectives:
This study investigates how Chinese young female cancer survivors (YFCS) navigate reproductive concerns following gonadotoxic cancer treatment, and how digital platforms support emotional coping, identity work, and health decision-making in the survivorship context.
Sample and Setting:
Fifteen Chinese YFCS aged 18–50 were recruited via online cancer communities and social platforms. All participants had completed cancer treatment and had used digital technologies (e.g., chat groups, health forums, apps) to engage with fertility-related topics.
Procedures:
Semi-structured interviews were conducted online (60–75 minutes). Interviews explored lived experiences, affective responses, cultural pressures, and platform-mediated coping strategies. Sampling continued until data saturation. Data were analysed thematically using NVivo, drawing on feminist new materialism to attend to affect, embodiment, and sociotechnical entanglements.
Emerging Insights:
Preliminary analysis suggests participants face emotional and identity challenges shaped by pronatalist norms and family pressures in the Chinese context. Digital spaces offer informal support through emotional sharing, peer advice, and reproductive knowledge. Beyond seeking preservation or planning options, many YFCS also described adapting to changed fertility, embracing uncertainty, and reimagining life beyond motherhood. These narratives disrupt dominant reproductive ideals and support alternative identities focused on personal growth, relationships, and emotional fulfilment. Digital platforms thus serve not only as tools for information exchange but as spaces for reframing survivorship and cultivating agency.
Conclusion and Clinical Implications:
Where formal fertility counselling is limited, digital peer networks provide culturally resonant and emotionally meaningful support. They enable diverse coping narratives, including non-motherhood and redefined womanhood. Psychosocial oncology services should integrate such perspectives into flexible, patient-centred care models that honour the full range of reproductive experiences after cancer.