Woman Delivers Healthy Baby Boy After Frozen Ovarian Tissue Transplant

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A woman, who has had her ovary tissues removed when she was a child, delivered a healthy baby boy after doctors successfully transplanted the tissue back.

The woman was born in the Republic of Congo and was diagnosed with sickle-cell anaemia at five years old. She immigrated to Belgium when she was 11.

Her disease progressed so much that she had to undergo a bone marrow transplant to treat it. Before the transplant procedure, she had to have chemotherapy to suppress the immune system, but in doing so, her ovaries could be destroyed permanently.

According to Daily Mail, a part of the woman's right ovary was removed and frozen. She then underwent the bone marrow transplant that was successful.

At age 15, her other ovary failed and she was on hormone replacement therapy to generate her menstrual cycle.

More than 10 years later,  with her desire to become a mother, her doctors transplanted the frozen ovarian tissue back to her system. It was successful since the woman began to have regular periods.

In less than three years since the ovarian tissue operation, the woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy at age 27.

The Belgian doctors who did the operation published their findings in the journal Human Reproduction.

According to the doctors, this could give hope to children diagnosed with serious diseases who may want to have a family many years later.

"This is an important breakthrough in the field because children are the patients who are most likely to benefit from the procedure in the future," said Dr. Isabelle Demeestre, Belgium's Erasme Hospital's gynaecologist and research associate, as per Eureka Alert.

"When they are diagnosed with diseases that require treatment that can destroy ovarian function, freezing ovarian tissue is the only available option for preserving their fertility," Dr. Demeestre added.

It is not clear whether the same procedure would be successful in very young children. Although the woman had a part of her ovaries removed before she had menstruation, there were signs that she had already started puberty with breast development at age 10.

According to Demeestere, it is possible for the woman to have another child using the same tissue because it is appears to be working normally.

"She also has the possibility of undergoing a second transplantation with the remaining frozen tissue if the graft stops working, as we didn't transplant all the ovarian tissue the first time," Demeestere said. "We have another patient who became pregnant after ovarian transplantation, and she had two babies born after two graft procedures."