Ovarian surgery can delay menopause for 20 years, claims IVF pioneer
Doctors have developed a medical procedure they claim could delay the menopause by 20 years by tricking women’s biological clocks.
The surgery involves extracting tissue from a woman’s ovaries, which is frozen at -150C and stored until she decides to delay the onset of menopause.
Thawing and transplanting the issue back into the woman’s ovary triggers the release of natural hormones, pushing back the menopause by up to 20 years by making her body believe she is years younger than she actually is.
Menopause, the reduction of oestrogen causing women’s periods to stop and signalling an end to being able to conceive naturally, is often accompanied by symptoms including hot flushes, mood swings and a drop in libido which can last for years.
The procedure has been privately carried out on nine known British women to date aged between 22 and 36 years old, and is being offered to women aged up to 40 by Birmingham company Profam (Protecting Fertility and Menopause).
Professor Simon Fishel, Profam’s co-founder and chief executive, is best known for his work pioneering IVF in the 1970s alongside Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards and was part of the team who oversaw the birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first IVF baby, in 1978.
“Women are living longer than at any time in human history,” he said.
“It’s quite likely that many women will be in the menopause for longer than their fertile period.
“We are empowering women to take control of their own health by naturally delaying their menopause.”
Richard Anderson, professor of clinical reproductive sciences at the University of Edinburgh, pointed out that ovarian cryopreservation with the intention of later transplant has been carried out for many years around the world.
“There are now several hundred women worldwide who have had ovarian tissue replaced, with almost all showing hormonal activity,” he said.
“What is less clear is whether this is a safe and effective way of doing so. One only has to remember the epidemic of endometrial cancer following the introduction of oestrogenonly HRT [hormone replacement therapy] that led to the recognition that progesterone was an essential component to make HRT much safer.
“We need similar data on ovarian transplantation before it can be considered safe.”
The procedure costs between £3,000 and £7,000 to remove and store the ovarian tissue at Birmingham University, and £4,000 for a regraft.