A baby has been born following regrafting of frozen ovarian tissue, the first successful birth from the procedure in England.
Unable to wait to undergo egg freezing treatment, the mother’s ovary was removed in 2018 prior to chemotherapy for breast cancer, aged 33. Tissue from the ovary was then frozen and stored, before recently being grafted on her remaining ovary, allowing her to conceive via IVF treatment.
Ovarian tissue freezing is offered in England by the National Paediatric Fertility Preservation Service, to children and young adults unable to undergo routine egg freezing procedures. Since 2013, the service has frozen tissue from over 2700 patients.
Due to constraints on patients able to be processed by the biobank which freezes the tissue, unfortunately some candidates for the treatment may not be able to undergo the procedure. Given the mental health issues that infertility can cause, it may be argued that ovarian tissue cryopreservation should be offered as a routine part of cancer care.
Over 130 live births have been reported following ovarian tissue cryopreservation, the majority of these resulting from tissue which was slow frozen using a controlled rate freezer. The first successful live birth in the UK from the procedure was reported in Scotland in 2017.
References:
Rivas Leonel EC, Lucci CM, Amorim CA. Cryopreservation of Human Ovarian Tissue: A Review. Transfus Med Hemother. 2019 Jun;46(3):173-181. doi: 10.1159/000499054. Epub 2019 Apr 9. PMID: 31244585; PMCID: PMC6558345.
https://www.progress.org.uk/first-baby-born-in-england-following-ovarian-tissue-graft/
