Mexican woman gets first transplant of ovaries in Latin America

Mexico City, May 24 (IANS/EFE) A Mexican woman received Latin America's first transplant of ovaries in a hospital in the western city of Guadalajara, the director of the Mexican Infertility Institute, Luis Arturo Ruvalcaba, announced.

Ruvalcaba told EFE by telephone that the patient is a 32-year-old women who had developed cervical and uterine cancer that was detected and treated in France.

"The ethics committee of the Public Hospital of Paris made an evaluation and decided at her request to cryopreserve her ovaries because her idea was not only to recover her hormonal function but also her reproductive function," he said.

He added that the ethics committee determined that the woman's chances of survival and making a complete recovery were good, and she was released from the hospital 18 months ago.

Since the French physicians did not have the proper training to perform the transplant, and given that she is Mexican, they recommended that she contact the Mexican Infertility Institute.

Ruvalcaba said that the Institute took on the task of reimplanting the woman's ovarian tissue back into her body.

"A week ago we did a ... laparoscopy to identify the site where we were going to implant the tissue, and today we successfully performed the transplant," he said.

In this patient's case, Ruvalcaba said that there is a 90-95 percent chance that she will recover her hormonal function, "and the chances are also very good that she can become a mother".

"Today we're proving that in Mexico we have all the tools of First World countries," he said.

--IANS/EFE

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