Implanted Ovarian Birth

In a major breakthrough, doctors from Erasme Hospital in Brussels have helped a 28-year-old woman conceive by making use of her frozen ovary tissue that was removed when she was only 13 years and 11 months old. This transplant has raised hopes in young cancer patients who face treatments such as chemotherapy that can damage ovaries and make them infertile.

There are instances of successful transplants in the past wherein frozen ovary tissue taken from adult woman resulted in pregnancy, but this is the first time that such a feat has been achieved using the ovary of a girl aged 13. The girl was suffering from sickle cell anaemia which required a bone marrow transplant. Prior to the transplant, she had her right ovaries removed which was followed by chemotherapy so as to disable her immune system and prevent rejection of bone marrow.

The ovary tissues were then frozen. This was done in her earlier stages of puberty when breast development had just started. Her period cycle, however, did not start by then. The treatment left the woman with no functioning ovary. A year later, doctors started hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to induce menstruation.

Ten years later, the woman expressed desire to start her family. The doctors then stopped HRT and followed the regular procedure of ovarian transplant and grafted four fragments of her frozen ovarian tissue on her left ovary and surrounding area. The transplanted tissue soon started responding to her hormones and her menstruation cycles began five months later. She became pregnant two years later and delivered a healthy boy in November last year weighing 6.9 pounds. Doctors said the woman’s ovary continues to function normally and she could have more babies in the future. Moreover, they also concluded that if the graft stopped working they could have a second transplant.

The achievement is very important as children who fear becoming sterile because of chemo therapy will no longer be at the risk of losing fertility.

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