Women who have had ovarian tissue removed, frozen, and then transplanted back into them in an experimental procedure have gone on to have children. Forty-one women in Denmark underwent the procedure because they needed cancer treatments that would harm their ovaries. One third of them later had children, according to a study.
This is the largest study of women who had ovarian tissue removed, frozen and then reinserted and it suggests that the technique is safe.
The procedure is intended for women with cancer who wish to preserve their fertility, since cancer treatments harm the ovaries. In this procedure, surgeons remove one ovary and cut it into strips that are then frozen. After the woman has recovered from cancer, the surgeon can thaw out a strip and graft it onto the remaining ovary. It takes three or four months for the grafts to heal and start producing eggs and hormones. Several of the women had grafts implanted more than once.
The study followed 41 women in Denmark who underwent the procedure from 2003 to 2014. Among the 32 women in the study who wanted children, 10 later got pregnant and gave birth to a total of 14 children. Worldwide, more than 36 babies have been born to women who had ovary transplants, with 14 in Denmark. For some women, the grafted ovarian tissue has worked for up to 10 years, longer than predicted.
Currently, women who are about to undergo chemotherapy or radiation are given the option of freezing eggs or fertilized embryos for later use.
The paper was published in the journal, Human Reproduction.
In the study, three women later had a cancer relapse, but the relapses do not appear to be linked to the transplant.