NZ 55 yr old gives birth again 2 yrs later/Belgian baby born after ovarian transplant

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Oldest mum does it again (0.37)

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_health_story_skin/451094%3fformat=html

 

Oct 2, 2004

 

New Zealand's oldest mum has given birth to a baby girl.

 

Lyn Mason, who is 55, beat her own record two years after giving birth to

son Dean.

 

The Hamilton mother was given a caesarean section two weeks before her due

date, and baby Seline is doing well.

 

Both the Masons' children were conceived by in-vitro fertilisation.

 

Their first daughter was killed in a car accident when she was 11.

 

 

 

Baby born after ovarian transplant

 

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_health_story_skin/449616%3fformat=html

 

Sep 24, 2004

 

A Belgian woman has given birth to the first baby born after an ovarian

tissue transplant, a medical breakthrough that brings hope to young cancer

patients whose fertility may be damaged by treatment.

 

The baby, a healthy girl named Tamara, was born on Friday in a hospital in

Brussels and weighed 3.72 kg. Her mother is Ouarda Touirat, 32, a hospital

spokeswoman says.

 

" The mother and baby are in excellent health, " the spokeswoman told Reuters.

" This astonishing feat gives tremendous hope to all women rendered infertile

by cancer treatments, " the hospital added in a statement.

 

Doctors led by Professor Jacques Donnez, head of the Department of

Gynaecology and Andrology at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, removed

and froze ovarian tissue from Touirat in 1997, when she was 25.

 

Touirat had Stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma and needed both chemo- and

radiotherapy. Such treatments can save patients' lives but can also damage

or destroy their fertility.

 

The ovarian transplant was carried out six years after her treatment, when

doctors declared she was free of cancer. Four months after the ovarian

tissue was transplanted Touirat's ovarian function was restored. Tamara was

conceived naturally after the transplant.

 

Unprecedented birth method

 

" This unprecedented event, the culmination of 10 years of research by

Professor Donnez and his team funded by the Televie and the FNRS, brings

immense joy to the parents for whom this baby represents a true miracle, "

the hospital said.

 

The researchers published an article online in the medical journal The

Lancet, at thelancet.com, which gave details of the procedure, illustrated

with photographs.

 

Using keyhole surgery, Donnez and his team took small samples from Touirat's

left ovary, cooled them to minus 196 degrees centigrade and stored them in

liquid nitrogen.

 

" Ovarian tissue cryopreservation should be an option offered to all young

women diagnosed with cancer, in conjunction with other existing options for

fertility preservation, " Donnez said in a statement.

 

Women are born with a finite number of eggs which are formed in follicles in

the ovaries. The number of eggs diminish as a woman ages until there are

very few left and menopause begins.

 

Although the aim of the ovarian tissue transplant is to help young infertile

cancer patients to become mothers, the advance could also enable women to

postpone childbearing past the natural menopause by freezing tissue when

they are young and having it transplanted later.

 

Other teams of scientists have been working on ovarian transplantation but

the Belgian team said they were the first to achieve a pregnancy and now a

birth.

 

Donnez and his team " have just achieved what no other team has ever managed

before- enabling a young patient cured of cancer to become a mother

following autotransplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue, " the hospital

said.

 

Donnez and the hospital set a photo opportunity and a news conference for 11

am local time on Friday.

 

© Reuters