Ovarian tissue transplant success
Updated on 02 August 2007
Doctors have carried out the first successful ovarian tissue transplant between two non-identical sisters.
The sister who received the tissue, Teresa Alvaro, produced eggs which were fertilised by her husband's sperm. Although the embryos did not develop properly, Teresa is hopeful she will become pregnant in the future.
The operation is the first be carried out on two non-identical sisters, Belgian scientists said, as the study was published in the journal Human Reproduction.
In 2005, a US team hit the headlines when Stephanie Yarber, who went through the menopause at 14, had a baby after her twin sister donated tissue.
In the latest case, Teresa received her sister Sandra's tissue after being left infertile by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In 1990, aged 20, she received chemotherapy and radiotherapy for an inherited blood disorder, beta-thalassemia. This was followed by a bone marrow transplant from Sandra, who was 17 at the time. The treatment and transplant was successful and Teresa was cured.
In July 2005, aged 35, Teresa contacted Professor Jacques Donnez, who is head of the department of gynaecology at the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels. She asked about the possibility of receiving ovarian tissue from Sandra. Prof Donnez's team tested the sisters and found they were a good match, meaning immuno-suppressant treatment would not be necessary to stop the tissue being rejected.
In February 2006, the sisters underwent the operation to transfer the ovarian tissue. Sections of tissue were removed from Sandra via laparoscopy and, in under a minute, were being sewn onto one of Teresa's ovaries, also via laparoscopy. The sisters were discharged from hospital the following day.
Teresa started her periods six months later and tests on her hormone levels confirmed that her ovaries were functioning. A year later, two eggs were removed from Teresa's ovary and fertilised with her husband's sperm using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a form of IVF.
The husband had a low sperm count and so experts believed ICSI had a greater chance of producing a pregnancy. One embryo developed to a two-cell stage while the second developed to a three-cell stage but both then stopped growing.
Prof Donnez said it was too early to say whether the procedure could eventually lead to a live birth. But, he added, the procedure gave hope to women who had not had an opportunity to freeze either their eggs or their ovarian tissue.
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