Ovarian Tissue Freezing

Ovarian Tissue Freezing can be described as an experimental method to preserve fertility and it involves freezing tissue taken from the outer layer of an ovary and storing the ovarian tissue for future use.

This approach is relatively new to preserve women’s fertility; it was originally used to maintain the reproductive health of younger women with a type of cancer (breast, lymphoma, etc.), where chemotherapy is required and which can be harmful to the ovaries. Thanks to the Ovarian Tissue Freezing method OTC, today, many young women may have a chance to have a child in the future by freezing their ovarian cortex (tissue) before their treatments start.

According to a study published April 2019 by Ellen Cristina Rivas Leonel, Carolina M. Lucci, Christiani A. Amorim, “Cryopreservation of human ovarian tissue has been increasingly applied worldwide to safeguard fertility in cancer patients, notably in young girls and women who cannot delay the onset of their treatment. Moreover, it has been proposed to patients with benign pathologies with a risk of premature ovarian insufficiency.”

There is only a few IVF Clinic that can perform ovarian tissue freezing, and as the first IVF clinic in Turkey, we are very proud to perform this procedure for our patients. During the ovarian tissue freezing, our experts will remove a part of an ovary or a whole ovary; usually, the process is carried out by laparoscopy; a laparoscope is a small telescope that is inserted into the abdomen through a small incision (cut). It brings light into the abdomen so the doctor can see inside. Then, this healthy tissue containing eggs will be brought to a special laboratory in our hospital to be cut into small strips and to be frozen. Thanks to this emerging treatment option, once the patient is cured of primary disease and would like to conceive, then the ovarian tissue strips can be thawed and be grafted back into your pelvis to conceive naturally, or the eggs can be retrieved to be used within Vitro fertilization (IVF) technique.

To freeze ovarian tissue, you are required to meet the following criteria:

• If it is the only available option for fertility preservation for girls whose menstrual period has not started
• Women who will go through a cancer treatment
• Women who cannot use fertility drugs.
• Women in pre-menopause who do not have adequate time to freeze embryos or eggs.
• Pre-pubertal women who are not able to have ovarian stimulation.

According to the same study that we mentioned above, published April 2019 by Ellen Cristina Rivas Leonel, Carolina M. Lucci, Christiani A. Amorim, “So far, more than 130 live births have been reported after transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue, and almost all patients recovered their ovarian function after tissue reimplantation.” As it is a newer treatment, it is difficult to be certain how likely this method will end in a live birth; however, today, various studies indicate that the ovarian freezing the technique is beyond the experimental stage, and we are hopeful that it will become a a well-established technique for fertility and we will have access to more data in the near future. If you would like to find out about Ovarian Cortex Freezing (Ovarian Tissue Freezing), please do not hesitate to contact our team.