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| |  Woman Conceives, Gives Birth to Healthy Babies After Ovarian Transplant GRIMBERGEN, Belgium -- February 26, 2010 -- For the first time, a woman has given birth to 2 children after her fertility was restored using transplants of ovarian tissue that had been removed and frozen during her cancer treatment and then restored once she was cured. Following her ovarian transplant, Mrs. Stinne Holm Bergholdt gave birth to a girl in February 2007 after receiving fertility treatment to help her become pregnant. But then, in 2008, she discovered she had conceived a second child naturally and gave birth to another girl in September 2008. Her doctor, Claus Yding Andersen, MD, Human Reproductive Physiology, University Hospital of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, reports the case today in the journal Human Reproduction. “This is the first time in the world that a woman has had 2 children from separate pregnancies as a result of transplanting frozen/thawed ovarian tissue,” he said. “These results support cryopreservation of ovarian tissue as a valid method of fertility preservation and should encourage the development of this technique as a clinical procedure for girls and young women facing treatment that could damage their ovaries.” So far, 9 children have been born worldwide as a result of transplanting frozen/thawed ovarian tissue (including Mrs. Bergholdt’s 2). Three have been born in Denmark after treatment carried out by Dr. Andersen. “Mrs Bergholdt gave birth to the first and the third babies and another woman delivered the second baby,” said Dr. Andersen. “This is the highest number of children born from 1 ovarian cryopreservation programme worldwide.” Mrs. Bergholdt, from Odense, Denmark, who is also one of the authors of the paper, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma when she was 27 in 2004. Before she began chemotherapy, part of her right ovary was removed and frozen (her left ovary had been removed some years before because of a dermoid cyst). Her cancer treatment was successful but, as expected, the drugs caused a menopause. In December 2005 6 thin strips of ovarian tissue were transplanted back on to what remained of her right ovary. Her ovary began to function normally again and, after mild ovarian stimulation, she became pregnant and gave birth to her first daughter, Aviaja, in February 2007. She breast-fed Aviaja until October 2007 and in January 2008 she returned to Dr. Andersen’s fertility clinic for additional IVF treatment so that she could conceive again. However, a pregnancy test revealed she was already pregnant naturally, and in September she gave birth to a healthy girl, Lucca. “This showed that the original transplanted ovarian strips had continued to work for more than 4 years and that Mrs. Bergholdt still has the capacity to conceive and give birth to healthy children,” said Dr. Andersen. “It is an amazing fact that these ovarian strips have been working for so long and it provides information on how powerful this technique can be. She continues to have natural menstrual cycles and, at present, is using pregnancy-preventing measures to avoid becoming pregnant again.” “She has 7 more ovarian strips in the liquid nitrogen tank and may return, if she wishes so, to have more tissue transplanted in order to maintain her ovarian function once the current strips stop working,” he said. “So, in total, by having around one third of an ovary removed she has the possibility of maintaining her ovarian function for many years. As long as the tissue remains properly stored in liquid nitrogen, it could remain functional for as long as 40 years. However, we do not know this for certain at present.” Mrs. Bergholdt said she and her husband had not decided yet whether they wanted more children.
SOURCE: European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
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