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23-Year-Old Woman May Be The First to Have Babies Through Frozen Ovary

by Reshma Anand on Mar 21 2016 4:37 PM

23-Year-Old Woman May Be The First to Have Babies Through Frozen Ovary
Moaza Alnatrooshi had her ovaries removed at the age of eight and now at the age of 23 years, she is planning to get pregnant by implanting the organ back into her body.
If the implantation succeeds, she will be the first in the world to have babies through a frozen ovary. Alnatrooshi is from Dubai and is staying in Britain where the implant will be taken place.

Alnatrooshi removed her ovaries at the age of eight because she was diagnosed with beta thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder, at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. She had chemotherapy which damages the ovaries, before a bone marrow transplant.

Therefore, her mother searched for ways to preserve her fertility and decided to freeze her ovaries. The ovaries were successfully removed and were frozen before puberty.

Last year, the ovary was transplanted back into her body by Danish surgeons, who arranged the transport of the frozen ovary from London to Denmark. After the operation, her hormone levels are normal and, therefore, she and her husband planned to go for in-vitro fertilization to get pregnant.

Sara Matthews, a consultant gynecologist at the private Portland Hospital for women and children in London, conducted the IVF procedure. She managed to produce three embryos, of which one will be implanted into the ovary next month.

Mrs Alnatrooshi said, "My mum did this huge thing for me which is that she froze my ovary and saved it for me until I grew up and used it. I want to believe I will be pregnant. I cannot wait for that day. I would like to say to all women that they have got to have hope."

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If the 23-year-old woman successfully becomes pregnant after the implantation, it will be a breakthrough increasing the hopes of many young women suffering from cancer and congenital disorders.

Dr. Matthews said, "This allows young girls who develop cancer or have other conditions that require chemotherapy, like beta thalassemia, to have children where the vast majority, over 90 percent would not be able to have their own children. There is no other way at the moment to do it. You cannot grow eggs. You can't do IVF [before the chemotherapy] because they haven't gone through puberty. It is the only option for them and we have been able to prove that, in practice, it works."

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Source-Medindia


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