The Side Effects of Chemotherapy on the Body

Chemotherapy infographic, Healthline Editorial Team, 2014

chemotherapy-infographic
Visit Healthline to see the detailed effects of chemotherapy in an interactive format.

Chemotherapy drugs are powerful enough to kill rapidly growing cancer cells, but they also can harm perfectly healthy cells, causing side effects throughout the body.

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6 thoughts on “The Side Effects of Chemotherapy on the Body”

  1. I had most every one of those symptoms indicated and even more on your chart. In addition I came very close to death from chemotherapy on a number occasions during treatment. After eighteen years I have recovered from most effects accept the nerve damage to my extremities and some other problems.
    This whole situation stems from fetal sexual development (Intersex) (DSD) resulting in one of my testis remaining as a fetal ovary until it became malignant as an adult. This could be from exposure to DES. In addition to all of these issue I also have gender issues that some people believe falls under the category of transgender. I on the other had believe this is purely an Intersex health issue caused by an EDC.
    I did marry and been so for almost forty three years. We even managed to have two children over fiveteen year period of marriage. One of my testis did develop to about half of normal adult size as compared to the other totally undeveloped right testis.
    Phycologicaly I feel both male and female. In addition I have hypogonadism, no surprise there. This is my normal, my world.

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    1. Thank you for sharing your experience David. If it helps you to share some of your story via a blog post, I am okay to publish a dedicated post… just let me know. Really glad to hear you have children. Kind regards

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      1. Yes indeed you can publish my story. This is who I am. I have survived these events and hope others can use the information to make their lives better.
        I was never told anything by the medical community ever as a child. I’m sure this all stems from their ignorance on the subject. There was also a sense that the medical community was in denial that people could be something other than just purely male and female. As a young child I saw first hand a very young boy with ambiguous genitila being subjected to sex change surgery. This was very confusing for me as a child and this was something I’ve carried with me my whole life. The thought I had as a ten year old child was that he was being punished for some abstract crime. I never spoke of this to anyone until I was an adult. Even when I did tell people I really don’t think most people can absorb that such things could happen or that some peoples sexual development wasn’t alway binary.
        I really do not know for sure if I was exposed to DES or other EDC but my Intersex body development is consistent with such exposure. genedic blood tests have been done to see if what I have is an inherited this condition and nothing tested so far suggests that was the case.
        I may never know for sure the root cause of my Intersex but doesn’t mean I haven’t accepted who I am.
        I’m David and I’m Hannah, both and yet neither. I’m just me

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  2. Sorry I’m not on Facebook but am open to any and all types of communication.

    My own spouse comes from a family of eight children, three of the children have clear signs of exposure. The oldest boy has had a teratoma in place of one of his testis. Much like myself. Two of the girls have sexual development issues. In addition my spouse has had issues related to precancerous conditions that we keep tabs on but I cannot make a direct connection with DES. But it would be a great stretch of imagination to connect the dots when making a case for this as being a cause.

    DES is far more wide spread than I ever thought. I could go on and on with the results of EDC exposure in humans.

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