Purpose This study aims to make an account of the children born following transplantation of frozen-thawed ovarian tissue worldwide with specific focus on the perinatal outcome of the children. Furthermore, perinatal outcome of seven deliveries (nine children) from Denmark is reported. Methods PubMed was searched for papers of deliveries resulting from ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC). Seven women underwent OTC prior to chemotherapy. Four of these women still had low ovarian function and had tried to conceive. They therefore had tissue autotransplanted to augment their fertility. The other three women had developed premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) after the end of treatment.Results Worldwide, approximately 95 children have been born or will be born in the near future from OTC, including these 9 new children. Information on the perinatal outcome was found on 40 children. The mean gestational age was 39 weeks and the mean birth weight was 3168 g of the singleton pregnancies, which is within internationally recognized normal standards. Furthermore, half the singletons resulted from natural conception and all twins resulted from in vitro fertilization treatment. All seven Danish women became pregnant within 1-3 years after transplantation. They gave birth to nine healthy children. Conclusion The data is reassuring and further suggests that cryopreservation of ovarian tissue is becoming an established fertility preservation method. The seven Danish women reported in this study were all in their early thirties when OTC was performed. Most other reported cases were in the women's twenties. This suggests that the follicular pool in the thirties is large enough and sufficient to sustain fertility.Keywords Fertility preservation . Cryopreservation . Ovarian tissue transplantation . Deliveries
IntroductionOvarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) and transplantation is a relatively new procedure within the area of assisted reproduction technologies (ART). OTC differs from other ART procedures like freezing oocytes or embryos by cryopreserving intact tissue containing small non-growing follicles [1,2]. Although the cryoprotectant media used to freeze ovarian tissue resemble those media used for oocytes and embryos, there are often subtle differences [3,4]. Furthermore, extensive investigations on the effects of cryoprotectants on both human and animal ovarian tissue have not revealed any potential side effects. However, studies in women who had frozen-thawed ovarian tissue transplanted have The original version of this article was revised: There were errors in the Discussion section and the last paragraph should be removed.Capsule The data is reassuring and further suggests that cryopreservation of ovarian tissue is becoming an established fertility preservation method.
Cryopreservation of ovarian tissue is likely to become integrated into the treatment of young women, with cancer, who run a risk of losing their fertility. The full functional lifespan of grafts is still being evaluated, because many of the transplanted women have continued to maintain ovarian activity. Some of our first cases have had tissue functioning for ∼ 10 years.
The Childhood Cancer Foundation (2012-2016) and the EU interregional project ReproHigh are thanked for having funded this study. They had no role in the study design, collection and analysis of the data or writing of the report. The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Purpose To report another two successful pregnancies and deliveries resulting from autotransplanted cryopreserved ovarian tissue several years after the autotransplantation procedure took place. Further, to review the literature on the treatment history, number of live births and their outcome so far reported worldwide. Methods Two women underwent fertility preservation with cryopreservation of their ovarian tissue prior to a potentially sterilizing treatment with bone marrow transplantation. One woman suffered from paroxystic nocturnal hemoglobinuria and one woman from relapse of Hodgkin′s lymphoma. Both suffered from premature ovarian insufficiency after treatment. Because of a pregnancy wish they later had pieces of thawed cortical tissue transplanted to the remaining ovary and the anterior abdominal wall. PubMed was searched for reports of deliveries resulting from cryopreserved ovarian tissue in peer-reviewed papers. Results Five years after the autotransplantation the first patient became spontaneously pregnant and delivered a healthy baby boy at term. The second patient became pregnant after undergoing one cycle of in vitro fertilisation five years after the autotransplantation. She delivered a healthy baby boy at gestational week 36. Twenty healthy singletons and two sets of twins have been born according to peer-reviewed publications. Conclusion Contrary to most of the published deliveries our latest two cases occurred several years after the autotransplantation procedure took place. This proves that ovarian grafts are capable of functioning for several years after the autotransplantation has occurred. Today, a total of 26 healthy children have been born as a result of cryopreservation of ovarian tissue.
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