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Prevention

Fertility Preservation: Successful Transplantation of Cryopreserved Ovarian Tissue in a Young Patient Previously Treated for Hodgkin's Disease

^aResearch Laboratory on Human Reproduction, ^bFertility Clinic, and ^cDepartment of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Erasme Hospital, Brussels, Belgium

Key Words. Pregnancy • Fertility • Ovarian tissue cryopreservation • Transplantation • Cancer

Correspondence: Isabelle Demeestere, M.D., Ph.D., Research Laboratory on Human Reproduction, Campus Erasme (Bat GE) CP636, 808 Route de Lennik, 1070 Brussels, Belgium. Telephone: 32-2-555-6358; Fax: 32-2-555-4520; e-mail: idemeest{at}ulb.ac.be

Disclosure: No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors, planners, reviewers, or staff managers of this article.

Cryopreservation of ovarian tissue is now offered as an experimental procedure to preserve the fertility of young patients with a high risk for premature ovarian failure resulting from cancer therapy. This is the only available option to preserve the fertility of prepubertal patients treated with gonadotoxic chemotherapy. At present, thousands of patients all over the world have undergone this procedure with the hope of later restoring their fertility. Although the efficiency of the transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue to restore ovarian function has been established, reports of pregnancy are still very scarce. Here, we describe the second published full-term spontaneous pregnancy after an orthotopic and heterotopic transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue in a 31-year-old woman previously treated by conditioning therapy for bone marrow transplantation for Hodgkin's disease. This birth gives compelling evidence for the graft origin of the gamete and confirms the efficacy of ovarian tissue transplantation in restoring human natural fertility after oncological treatment. This case report stresses the importance of proposing the ovarian tissue cryopreservation procedure to all young patients who require potentially sterilizing treatment, with all alternative options to preserve fertility being duly taken into consideration.

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