- Women could wait until they were 47 before starting a family, says fertility expert
By Jenny Hope
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Women could delay having babies and the menopause with an ovary transplant, according to the surgeon who carried out the first such operation.
Similar techniques are currently used to save the ovaries of those being treated for cancer, but Dr Sherman Silber predicted transplants or grafts for social reasons were a realistic option for preserving fertility.
In 2007 the US microsurgeon transplanted an ovary from one twin to another who had become infertile. The 38-year-old woman gave birth the following year.
Future of motherhood? Dr Silber's work has led to eight babies being born to women who had frozen and thawed ovary grafts or fresh ovary grafts donated by relatives (posed)
Transplanting ovaries or ovarian tissue is currently used to help women and girls undergoing cancer treatment to preserve their fertility.
The drugs used to treat cancer may destroy ovaries, so slices of tissue are taken in advance and frozen. They can be re-implanted when the woman is ready to start a family.
So far 22 women have given birth after having their ovarian tissue restored. The latest success was achieved in Italy seven years after a 21-year-old woman had ovarian tissue frozen before cancer treatment.
Details were released at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Istanbul.
Dr Silber predicted transplants or grafts for social reasons were a realistic option for preserving fertility
Dr Silber, who practises at the Infertility Center of Saint Louis, Missouri, presented data on three wo men who had frozen and thawed ovary grafts and nine who had fresh ovary grafts, usually donated by relatives.
One woman had ovarian tissue implanted to treat premature menopause caused by cancer drugs, while another had a graft to treat a naturally premature menopause.
Eight babies have been born in total to the women, with one graft lasting seven years so far.
Dr Silber said: ‘Transplanted ovarian tissue can robustly restore menstrual cycles and fertility and may even in the future be used to postpone the normal time of menopause or to alleviate its symptoms.’
It was a remedy for severe bone loss caused by premature menopause because the new ovary would supply the body’s missing hormones, he added.
Women going through a premature menopause in their 20s or 30s are currently offered hormone replacement therapy to alleviate symptoms. Dr Silber has previously claimed ovary transplants could be a solution to the increase in fertility problems caused by career women putting off having children.
In 2008 he predicted women who had an ovary frozen in their 20s could look forward to the best of all worlds.
‘A young ovary can be transplanted back at any time and it will extend fertility and delay the menopause. You could even wait until you were 47,’ he said.
However, British experts said ovarian transplant techniques were originally developed to help women facing infertility through cancer treatment and this was likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.
Professor Nick Macklon, medical director of the Complete Fertility Centre, Southampton, said freezing ovarian tissue for social reasons raised ethical issues that would need to be debated by society as well as doctors.
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I'd really like my mum to die of old age on my 21st birthday
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Ovarian grafts? What about condoms, the pill, IUD's, contraceptive shot and "i've got a headache."
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@Mr G, London,: you can't do that because you need an income to support the children you've bred. Duh. --What this article hasn't addressed is if these women need to take anti-rejection drugs in order to have a grafted ovary. I understand that if you're transplanted with your own ovary it's a different case than if you received a donor ovary.
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Trouble is young women can't give up work as rents are too dear and men have been fooled into believing that they don't need to settle down till their late 30s/40s so there is no-one for young women to breed with unless they go on benefits.
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Gross.
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There have been several natural births in our family to women in their 40s, if you are fertile you are, if not then tough.
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Surely the majority of women are fertile till at least mid 40s anyway.
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Put the welfare of the child first, you silly women inclined to give birth so late in life! You will be the age of a granny when the child is born and 13 years older when the child is a teenager. You could be dead by the time it becomes an adult.
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Should have stayed at home and had babies as healthy young women, then chased that career. But no, they wanted it all then realised a little to late that they had nothing other than an empty house. These selfish women should be shown the door and all help should be focused on helping young women who want and can't have children. Care homes are full of needy children that need a loving family.
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Because every ten year-old wants a 57 year-old mother. - Michele, St. Louis, MO, USA, 4/7/2012 16:04 hmmm the 10 years old doesn't fancy a 57 year-old father either.
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