In a first, woman gives birth with ovary tissue frozen before puberty

Several women get pregnant with the help of ovarian tissues taken from adult women, but for the first time a woman has given birth after surgeons implanted ovarian tissue frozen before puberty.

The patient was diagnosed with acute anaemia when she was 14 that forced her to go through an ovary-damaging treatment but before the therapy, her right ovary was removed and frozen in fragments in the hope that it could be used if she ever wanted to become a mother, reported News.com.au.

A decade after her treatment, surgeons in Belgium re-implanted the tissues and the patient gave birth to a healthy boy in November 2014.

Isabelle Demeestere, who carried out the implant, said that 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.

She added that 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.

In a journal named Human Reproduction, the doctors have claimed that this is their first success with tissues that were removed before puberty.