Belgium: first child born through transplant of immature ovary
Xinhua, June 10, 2015 Adjust font size:
A woman in Belgium has become the first in the world to give birth using ovarian tissue frozen while she was still a child, it was reported on Wednesday.
The woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy in November 2014.
According to the medical journal Human Reproduction, and reported in local media, the 27-year-old woman had an ovary removed when she was 13, immediately prior to her undergoing medical treatment for sickle cell anaemia.
At this time, she underwent a bone marrow transplant, in which chemotherapy was needed to disable her immune system in order to stop her body rejecting the new tissue.
As chemotherapy often causes irreversible damage to the ovaries, one was removed and frozen. The remaining ovary failed when she was 15.
A decade later, she decided that she wanted to conceive a child, so doctors grafted four of the thawed tissue fragments onto her remaining ovary, as well as 11 tissue fragments onto other parts of her body.
The woman at the centre of the story wishes to remain anonymous. However, it is known that she emigrated to Belgium from the Republic of Congo when she was 11 years old.
About 40 women around the world have given birth using frozen ovarian tissue. However, this is the first time that tissue was taken from a pre-pubescent girl. Endit