World first as woman who had ovary frozen when she was a child gives birth in Britain
A WOMAN in Britain has become the first in the world to give birth after having an ovary removed as a child, frozen and then re-implanted.
Moaza Al Matrooshi, 24, had her ovarian tissue frozen aged nine ahead of the chemotherapy she needed to treat a rare blood disorder.
It makes her the first woman to give birth having had an ovary removed prior to going through puberty.
Speaking yesterday from the London hospital where her son was born, Mrs Al Matrooshi: ‘It’s like a miracle. We’ve been waiting so long for this result – a healthy baby.’
Doctors said the birth offers hope to girls and young women who risk losing the chance of motherhood due to treatment for cancer, blood or immune disorders.
Mrs Al Matrooshi’s doctor Sara Matthews, a consultant in gynaecology and fertility, said she was overjoyed for the family, adding: ‘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,’
Mrs Al Matrooshi, who is from Dubai, was born with beta thalassaemia, an inherited blood disorder that is fatal if untreated.
She needed chemotherapy, which damages the ovaries, in order to combat the condition, and later also received a bone marrow transplant from her brother at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Before undergoing the treatment, the nine- year- old had her
‘This is a huge step forward’
right ovary removed in an operation in Leeds, where the tissue was frozen.
Fragments of her ovarian tissue were mixed with cryo-protective agents and slowly reduced in temperature to minus 196C before being stored under liquid nitrogen.
Last year, surgeons in Denmark transplanted five slivers of the ovarian tissue back into her body. Four were stitched on to her failed left ovary and one on to the side of her uterus.
Though her body had naturally started going through menopause, her hormone levels began returning to normal after the operation.
She then began ovulating and her fertility was restored, allowing her to become pregnant, with doctors announcing in March that she was trying for a baby.
But in order to maximise the chances of her having a child, Mrs Al Matrooshi and her husband Ahmed underwent IVF treatment.
From the eight eggs that were collected, three embryos were produced, one of which was implanted earlier this year – leading to the birth of her son on Tuesday at the privately-run Portland Hospital. ‘I always believed that I would be a mum and that I would have a baby,’ she said.
‘I didn’t stop hoping and now I have this baby – it is a perfect feeling.’
Mrs Al Matrooshi also thanked her mother, whose idea it was to save her young daughter’s ovarian tissue so that she might be able to have a family in the future.
Dr Matthews, who conducted the fertility treatment, told the BBC: ‘Within three months of re-implanting her ovarian tissue, Moaza went from being menopausal to having regular periods again. ‘She basically became a normal woman in her 20s with normal ovary function.’ Professor Helen Picton, of the University of Leeds, who carried out the ovary freezing, said: ‘This is incredibly encouraging. Moaza is a pioneer and was one of the first patients we helped back in 2001, before any baby had been born from ovary tissue preservation. ‘Worldwide more than 60 babies have been born from women who had their fertility restored, but Moaza is the first case from pre-pubertal freezing and the first from a patient who had treatment for beta thalassaemia.’ Researchers in Leeds have been at the forefront of ovarian tissue freezing. In 1999 their scientists were instrumental in performing the world’s first transplant of frozen ovarian tissue.
Professor Picton, who leads the division of reproduction and early development at Leeds, said that in Europe alone, several thousand girls and young women now have frozen ovarian tissue in storage.
This is usually done prior to patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatment, both of which damage fertility.
Earlier this year a cancer patient from Edinburgh became the first UK woman to give birth following a transplant of her frozen ovary tissue. The mother, who conceived naturally, wished to remain anonymous.
Last year a woman in Belgium gave birth using ovarian tissue frozen when she was 13. Unlike Mrs Al Matrooshi, she had begun going through puberty when her ovary was removed.
The first woman in the world to give birth following the transplantation of her own ovarian tissue was in Belgium in 2004.
Mrs Al Matrooshi still has one embryo in storage as well as two remaining pieces of ovarian tissue.
She said she definitely plans to have another baby in the future.