Successful Pregnancy After Transplantation of Preserved Ovarian Tissue
Reported June 28, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Doctors in Israel announce a woman has successfully given birth to a healthy little girl after having a transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue. The patient had ovarian failure after being treated with chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The doctors explain premenopausal women who undergo high-dose chemotherapy have a very high risk of ovarian failure. During the 24 months following the 28-year-old patient’s chemotherapy treatment, hormone measures were consistent with ovarian failure.
After two years of being disease free, the patient requested autotransplantation of her frozen ovarian tissue to hopefully restore fertility. Eight months after transplantation, she menstruated and levels of certain hormones were found to be high again.
After receiving a second menstrual cycle, doctors performed in vitro fertilization with sperm from the patient’s husband. Repeated ultrasonography during the pregnancy showed normal fetal growth, and at about 39 weeks, a healthy-appearing girl was born through C-section.
Transplantation of ovarian tissue is thought to carry a risk of transplanting malignant cells, say the authors. However, tissue was harvested in this patient after therapy with no evidence of disease and no cancer cells.
“Although we cannot rule out the possibility that the egg was derived from the native ovary, we consider this possibility very unlikely, given the consistent evidence of ovarian failure after high-dose chemotherapy and the timing of restoration of ovarian function after transplantation,” say the doctors. They conclude that their results show fertility can be preserve with cry preservation in humans.
SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, published online June 27, 2005