A team of gynecologists from the Hospital Clínic from Barcelona has successfully performed a pioneering technique in the world that allows women with advanced menopause to return to ovulate.
Yesterday they presented Maria Jesus, the first woman who has been a mother at the end of August thanks to this simple intervention. A breath of hope for the one percent of the estimated female population suffers from menopausal symptoms before their 40th birthday.
How it is performed?
As explained by the medical team, led by Dr. Francesc Fàbregues and Dr. Francisco Carmona, the technique consists in extracting, by laparoscopy, a part of the ovarian cortex (the cortex), fragmenting it and reinserting it near the other ovule, so that it reactive
After the intervention, the woman is hormonally stimulated for a few weeks to obtain oocytes, which will then be fertilized by an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure.
The explanation of this pioneering technique has been published recently in the Journal of Ovarian Research, 2018.
Dr. Francesc Fabregues, talks about her in this video.
Maria Jesus, the first mom
María Jesús with her daughter and part of the medical team. Photo: Hospital Clínic This pioneer technique and implemented by the team of Dr. Francisco Fàbregues of the Clinical Hospital of Barcelona has been applied in 12 women. 50% of women have managed to have ovarian activity after the intervention and María Jesús, one of them, has already been a mother.
María Jesús told the media, during a press conference held yesterday, that she was detected early menopause at age 30, after trying to get pregnant and not succeed.
He explains that for two years he tried treatments and up to five fertilization techniques, but failed to produce eggs. So when he arrived at the Hospital Clínic to access an egg donation and the gynecologists raised the possibility of undergoing this new technique, he agreed.
This happened in October of last year and she gave birth to her daughter in August. Happy to have fulfilled his dream of being a mother, he is confident that this technique can also help many more women.
In Babies and more Fifteen years after being diagnosed with early menopause, she became naturally pregnant and was a motherWhy is it a scientific breakthrough?
The concept of ovarian tissue activation in patients with premature ovarian failure was introduced by a group of Japanese doctors.
They published an article in which they explained that this procedure was done by performing two laparoscopies: in one they fragmented the tissue, and in the second, they tried to activate it through pharmacological substances.
The innovation of the Hospital Clinic technique is based on:
- The whole process is done in a single intervention.
- Ovarian tissue does not undergo drugs.
- It is more agile and economical than that used by Japanese doctors.
What do we call early menopause?
It occurs when a woman is born with a smaller reserve than expected from ovarian folic or when, for various reasons, the follicles are consumed faster than normal and the woman has symptoms before age 40.
During the 30 or 40 years of her fertile life, the woman consumes all her ovarian follicles (between 300 and 400 thousand) and enters menopause when she no longer has a reserve. Then, the ovaries stop working, the woman no longer produces sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone), and stops ovulating, becoming infertile.
In Babies and more Ovarian reserve: what it is and how it affects your fertilityBut early menopause, in addition to infertility, also includes suffering before the symptoms of normalized menopause: hot flashes, vaginal dryness, mood swings ... With the addition of suffering from important emotional disorders.
That is why this new technique is good news for many women and the hope of seeing their desire to be a mother fulfilled.
Science advances and with it our chances of getting pregnant naturally.
Photos | iStock
