Woman Gives Birth Using Frozen Ovary From Childhood

A woman who had her ovaries frozen when she was just a child has given birth to a baby boy at the Portland Hospital. The 24-year old Moaza Al Matrooshi had been considered this a miracle. Her fertility doctor and gynecologist Dr. Sara Matthews expressed her joy for the family.

"This is a huge step forward. We know that ovarian tissue transplantation works for older women, but we've never known if we could take tissue from a child, freeze it and make it work again," Matthews said.

BBC said Doctors hope this would give hope to other women who have cancer or other disorders that would make pregnancy almost impossible. Experts consider this a breakthrough considering that Matrooshi had beta thalassaemia when she was a child and had damaged her ovaries when she had to undergo chemotherapy before undergoing bone marrow transplant.

In Vitro Fertilization was not an option for her at that time since she was not even at the puberty stage. Unfortunately, menopause set in after the chemotherapy because of the partial functioning of the ovary that remained,

Before the treatment, Matrooshi's right ovary had been removed, frozen and preserved with the hope that she would someday conceive and become a mother. Telegraph said specialists sent the frozen ovary to Denmark for the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) procedure undergone by Matrooshi and her husband Ahmed.

CARE London clinic director Rob Smith said Matrooshi's case represented a "landmark in fertility preservation treatment for young girls who risk irreversible ovarian damage following necessary treatments for diseases such as cancer".

Mirror said her story will provide hope to women who are at risk of infertility as a result of invasive treatments when they were young. Her case is proof of the increasing success rate of IVF and will hopefully help many people with similar conditions.