Ovarian Tissue Transplant Will Help Women Have Babies

A Congolese-Belgian woman was given a fresh lease of life when she gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby after doctors made her fertile again by transplanting ovarian tissue that was removed from her body and kept frozen when she was just a child. This makes her the first woman in the world to successfully give birth to a healthy child even though she was infertile, reports Business Insider.

This is one of the biggest studies of its kind in which women had their ovarian tissue removed, frozen and then re-transplanted into their bodies making them capable of bearing children. This technique was deemed absolutely safe and gave one third success rate in the women who underwent this experiment. This procedure is for the women who were suffering from cancer but would want to preserve their fertility as the cancer treatments can often damage the ovaries. The scientists remove the ovaries and the preserve them in the form of strips. After the woman has fully recovered from her disease, the doctors redraft the thawed strip back into the ovaries, as per Yahoo News. Researchers used a sample size of 41 women from Denmark who formed a part of this experiment from 2003 to 2014.

As per Washington Post, Denmark is the only country in the world who offers this treatment for free to the women, if they qualify. The scientists say that the tissue can last up to 10 years in its preserved form. They further add that the technique still requires a lot of validation but so far has given promising results. It certainly offers hope to the women who otherwise have no alternative. According to Dr. Jane Stewart of British Fertility Society, the treatment may not be suitable for all women so the doctors need to choose their patients carefully.