More than 15 years ago, a former cancer patient had her ovarian tissue frozen in a procedure that was still experimental at the time. The tissue has now been reinserted, the woman became pregnant naturally after just six months and is expecting her first child, the tirol kliniken informed in a broadcast.
In recent years, there has already been a pregnancy and childbirth after transplantation of ovarian tissue at the Innsbruck clinic. However, the patient at the time still had her own menstrual cycle, so the influence of the transplanted tissue could not be clearly delimited. Bettina Toth, Director of the Innsbruck University Clinic for Gynecological Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine, emphasized the importance of this event, making the said pregnancy the first in Austria that can be proven to have occurred with the help of this method.
The technique of freezing ovarian tissue has existed in Innsbruck since 2003. In the past, it was customary to freeze egg cells to give chemo patients the chance of a possible future pregnancy. However, this requires hormonal stimulation over a period of two to three weeks. For some cancer patients – like the one mentioned above, in whom cancer of the lymphatic system was diagnosed – chemotherapy must be started immediately.
Source: Nachrichten
