New service allows female cancer patients in Hong Kong to preserve ovarian tissue, giving them hope of having children in future

Cancer patients in urgent need of treatment cannot afford to undergo embryo or egg freezing which requires time to stimulate the ovaries, while those who are still children have not undergone puberty to produce eggs.

Dr Jacqueline Chung Pui-wah, associate professor of Chinese University’s department of obstetrics and gynaecology, said ovarian tissue cryopreservation was now available at its assisted reproductive technology unit since early June, offering such patients hope.

“Before the patients undergo any kind of chemotherapy or treatment that can affect their reproductive ability, we can carry out surgery to extract ovarian tissue for preservation,” she said.

“If in the future, they wish to have children after their recovery, we can carry out another operation to transplant the tissue on the ovary surface so that they can reproduce again.”

Chung’s team had been assessing the feasibility of implementing ovarian tissue cryopreservation in Hong Kong since 2019.

The researchers collected and froze 52 ovarian tissue samples from 12 patients, aged 29 to 41, which were later transplanted into 34 mice. It was found that most of the tissue remained viable after transplant.

The research findings were published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal in February.