Ovary Transplant Marks Breakthrough in Fertility Research

On November 11, 2008, a healthy baby girl was born to a woman who received an ovary transplant from her twin sister; the first time an entire ovary was transplanted and resulted in a live birth. The procedure, a progression beyond research that indicates ovarian tissue can still be transplanted after being frozen, lends hope to young cancer patients facing infertility due to chemotherapy. Children have been born to women receiving transplants of ovarian tissue, but in this case, the entire ovary was transplanted and connected to the pulmonary system by an artery and two veins. Doctors hoped the improved circulation would prevent eggs in the ovary from dying. Using the previous technique, two-thirds of eggs could be expected to die.

In a more controversial application for this technique, sure to set off all sorts of bioethics alarms, doctors suggest young women on the career path could freeze an ovary in their 20’s and have it re-implanted later in life. Thus, women would be able to extend their number of child-bearing years and ensure fertility well into their 40’s. However, Dr. Sherman Silber, who performed the transplant surgery, was interviewed for an article by the Telegraph.co.uk, and makes a valid point in favour of this idea: The procedure makes it possible for women, having planned ahead of course, to conceive without the ethical issues that traditionally plague other fertility methods such as egg donation or in vitro fertilization. Since conception is also more or less natural, it would reduce the epigenetic problems that could arise from in vitro techniques gone wrong.

An entire chapter on fertility treatments and the ethics of fertility research can be found in Dr. Moira Gunn's Biotech Nation

_{Source: Smith, R. Delay motherhood by ‘removing ovary for storage’. Telegraph.co.uk, December 10, 2008.}