In England, a young woman aged 24 has just given birth to her first child after a course strewn with obstacles. At age nine, her ovarian tissue had to be frozen due to illness, then it was re-implanted in 2015.
It is a tremendous medical feat that has benefited this 24-year-old young woman from Dubai. Indeed, the one whose ovarian tissue had to be frozen when she was only nine years old was able to give birth to her first child, at Portland Hospital in London, as the University of Leeds announced on Wednesday, in England.
» This is the first time the procedure has been successful on a prepubescent girl. “, rejoices Helen Picton, professor at the University of Leeds and who had frozen in 2001 the ovarian tissue of Moaza Al Matrooshi, the young woman now 24 years old. » In total worldwide, more than 60 babies have been born to women who have had their fertility restored, but Moaza is the first case of a prepubertal freezing and the first for a patient treated for thalassemia. “, she adds in her interview given to the BBC.
From birth, the young woman was diagnosed with thalassemia, a blood disease linked to a defect in the production of hemoglobin which required that she undergo chemotherapy which could affect her fertility, the University of Leeds tells us. In order to preserve her future chances of giving birth, her right ovary was removed and frozen before starting this chemotherapy.
These tissues were then successfully re-implanted during 2015, allowing the woman to give birth a year later. A success that she describes herself as a « miracle », chemotherapy having made her enter menopause when she had just turned 20 years old. » After her transplant, her hormone levels started to return to normal, she started ovulating and her fertility was restored. “, explains the University.