Shannen Doherty looking at alternatives to become a mum following cancer battle

Shannen Doherty is exploring alternative ways to become a mum after experiencing menopause following her battle with breast cancer.

The former Charmed star went into remission in 2017, but explains she is not keen to start taking hormones in a bid to get pregnant, because she doesn't want to risk the cancer coming back.

"It's not possible (for me to get pregnant) because I can't get out of menopause," she tells Health magazine. "That would require oestrogen, and I'm choosing not to take hormone pills. I can't risk those levels coming up."

Doherty reveals she and her husband, Kurt Iswarienko, are looking into alternatives, and she admits she'll be happy to become a mother however it happens.

"We're having conversations about an egg donor, maybe adoption," she says. "But there's fear there. Am I going to last five years? Ten years? I certainly wouldn't want my 10-year-old burying a mother. I've always wanted a kid. But maybe I'm supposed to mother in a different way."

Meanwhile, Shannen insists she's a completely new person after battling breast cancer, explaining that her journey through treatment exposed a softer, more vulnerable, side of her.

"As brutal as it was, cancer was a gift," she tells the magazine. "It opened me up, it taught me about myself, and it changed me as a human being forever.

"I felt more feminine and vulnerable than I've felt in my entire life. I was always used to being the strong one, and during that time period, every wall I'd built up in my life came down. I also had a lot more time to look at myself and say, 'I'm a pretty OK person', and cut myself some slack. I've had a lot of those epiphanies. It's OK to stumble."