1 Portuguese oncologists’ practices regarding female fertility preservation: 1 Which barriers most relate with these practices? 2 Cláudia Melo 1,2 , Ana Fonseca 1,2 , Cristina Silva 3 , Teresa Almeida-Santos 4,5 , & Maria Cristina Canavarro 1,2 3 4 1 Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. 5 2 Unit of Psychological Intervention, Maternity Daniel de Matos, Coimbra Hospital and University Centre, 6 Portugal. 7 3 Centre for Pharmaceutical Studies, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Portugal. 8 4 Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal. 9 5 Portuguese Centre for Fertility Preservation, Reproductive Medicine Department, Coimbra Hospital and 10 University Centre, Portugal. 11 12 Corresponding author: 13 Cláudia Melo 14 Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra 15 Rua do Colégio Novo, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal 16 E-mail address: claudiasmelosilva@gmail.com 17 Telephone number: +351913588808 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Acknowledgments 25 This study is part of the “2ReproChoose - Fertility preservation in female cancer patients: Decision-making 26 process of patients, individual adaptation after cancer treatments and practices of oncologists” research 27 project, which is part of the Relationships, Development & Health Research Group of the R&D Cognitive 28 and Behavioural Centre for Research and Intervention of the University of Coimbra (PEst- 29 OE/PSI/UI0730/2014). Cláudia Melo and Ana Fonseca are supported by scholarships from the Portuguese 30 Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/84677/2012 and SFRH/BPD/93996/2013). 31 32 33 34 35