For young women of reproductive age freezing their eggs prior chemotherapy is a great option
A young woman form Dubai hopes to get pregnant through IVF after having her prior- puberty frozen ovary re-implanted.
A cancer diagnosis can be very shocking for women of young age since usually at that time in life creating a family is a top priority, so it is really important to them to have fertility options. When it comes to children though, fertility options are limited.
A main concern for young girls being treated for cancer or other disease is loss of fertility. Even if the disease itself does not impact fertility by damaging the ovaries and general reproductive health, what impairs or threatens to impair fertility is the treatment of it. More specifically, chemotherapy is a major cancer treatment that can cause infertility.
For young women of reproductive age freezing their eggs prior chemotherapy is a great option for fertility preservation. For children, however, growing eggs would not work. IVF cannot be done before girls go through puberty. Freezing a piece of the ovary is the only options for these cases and now it is seen for the first time that this method actually works.
Moaza Alnatrooshi, a 21 year old woman from Dubai, suffering from beta thalassemia, had to undergo chemotherapy for treating her disease at the age of 8. Her mother decided to have part of her ovary frozen, so that she would be able to use it after puberty for having a baby.
Her remaining ovary was not fully functioned so experienced an early menopause at the age of 21. Moaza underwent the ovarian tissue transplant in Denmark in August last year. The outcome of the surgery was her hormone levels and ovulation process to be restored.
IVF experts collected 8 oocytes and fertilized them by IVF in the fertility clinic. Three of them led to viable embryos while one out three is about to be transferred in the following month. Moaza is quite likely to be the first woman who got pregnant after receiving a transplanted ovary, frozen prior puberty, giving hope to all the girls who might find themselves in such an unfortunate condition.
