A physician at Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital successfully performed the first ovarian transplant procedure in New England, for a patient whose ovary was removed and preserved 18 years earlier.
The procedure took place in August and the patient was able to go home the next day, according to an Oct. 9 hospital news release shared with Becker's.
When the patient was 20, she received a bone marrow transplant that brought on premature menopause. At that time, Kutluk Oktay, MD, removed one of her ovaries, and stripped off and cryopreserved the surface tissue.
Eighteen years later, the tissues were thawed and used to reconstruct a "new ovarian construct." Dr. Oktay then sutured the ovarian construct to the patient's menopausal ovary.
The full function of the ovarian transplant will not be apparent for three to six months, and whether the procedure has restored the patient's fertility will not be known for one year or more, the release said.