Infertile woman gives birth in Japan after ovarian tissue implants

A 30-year-old infertile woman gave birth after surgeons removed her ovaries and reimplanted tissue they treated in a lab, researchers report.

The experimental technique was only tried in a small group of Japanese women with a specific kind of infertility problem, but scientists hope it can also help women in their early 40s who have trouble getting pregnant because of their age.

The new mother gave birth to a son in Tokyo last December, and she and the child continue to be healthy, said Dr Kazuhiro Kawamura of the St Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Japan. He and others describe the technique in a report published online on Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The mother, who was not identified, had been diagnosed with primary ovarian insufficiency, an uncommon form of infertility sometimes called premature menopause. It appears in about 1 per cent of women of child-bearing age. The cause of most cases is unknown, but the outcome is that the ovary has trouble producing eggs.

That leaves women with only a 5 per cent to 10 per cent chance of having a baby unless they get treated. The standard treatment is using donor eggs.

Kawamura and colleagues were able to recover eggs from five of their 27 patients. One woman had a miscarriage, one did not get pregnant and two more have not yet attempted pregnancy, Kawamura said.

In the ovary, eggs mature in structures called follicles. For women with the condition the new study targeted, the follicles are either missing or failing to produce eggs. The experimental treatment was designed to stimulate dormant follicles.