American scientists from Stanford University, together with Japanese colleagues from St. Marianne University School of Medicine, have created a new method of infertility treatment for women with premature menopause.
This technique consists in carrying out several operations in patients to remove the ovaries, create incisions on their surface and “implant” fragments of ovarian tissue back into the body.
To conduct the experiment, 27 women were invited who suffer from infertility from about 30 years old due to primary ovarian dysfunction, which occurs in every hundredth woman. The main reason for this problem may be a very frequent maturation of eggs or a small number of germ cells, which are laid at birth.
During the experiment, the scientists tried to “wake up” the follicles, which, perhaps, still remained in their ovaries. As mentioned earlier, the ovaries were removed, cut into fragments, and then treated with substances that stimulate their development and growth. A few days later, fragments of ovarian tissue were “implanted” in their original place, namely in the fallopian tubes. After that, the patients were prescribed hormone therapy, after which some menstruation resumed.
As a result, follicles that have taken root began to develop in 8 subjects. After that, the matured eggs were removed for in vitro fertilization. At the moment, one of the women has already given birth to a healthy baby, the other is still pregnant, and the rest are being prepared for the embryo implantation procedure.
Experts believe that the results of this study look very promising. They hope that this technique can also help with other forms of infertility, for example, in patients who have undergone radiation and chemotherapy, as well as those who have an irregular menstrual cycle at the age of 40-45.