Mum Gives Birth Using an Ovary Frozen in Her Childhood

A woman, who had beta thalassemia and other serious illnesses at a young age, has successfully given birth to a baby boy using an ovary that was frozen in her childhood. 

Moaza al-Matrooshi, now 24, from Dubai, was born with the inherited blood disorder, beta thalassemia. Her condition required a bone-marrow transplant from her brother and chemotherapy when she was a child.

At the age of nine, she underwent an invasive treatment that was needed to save her life, but it would also mean her ovaries would be damaged. Her parents authorised the removal of her right ovary, and using a technology that was still unproven at the time, her ovary was frozen.

Three years after Moaza’s ovary was removed and frozen, the first live birth from preserved adult ovarian tissue happened. However, the idea that freezing an ovary from a young girl who hadn’t reached puberty seemed impossible and nobody knew if it would actually work.

The procedure involved transplanting five slivers of thawed ovarian tissue back into Ms. Matrooshi’s body last year. Four slivers were grafted onto her failed left ovary, which had been damaged by the chemotherapy, and one sliver was grafted onto the side of her uterus.

Another amazing thing was that Moaza had previously been in menopause, but after she had the procedure, her eggs started to grow in the transplanted tissue, and she began to ovulate as hormones went back to normal.

Doctors used follicle-stimulating hormone to stimulate the ovary for in vitro fertilization and retrieved eight eggs, and finally implanting two embryos in her womb earlier this year.

She said that she still has one embryo in storage, and her gynaecologist said they’d kept two pieces of tissue in the freezer so they could repeat the process if required.

On Tuesday, Moaza gave birth to a healthy baby boy, she named Rashid, via C-section at the Portland Hospital for Women and Children.

Now, the miraculous birth of Rashid offers huge hope to other young girls undergoing cancer treatment that they too can still be mothers in the future.

Almost a week after giving birth, Moaza still can’t believe her baby boy is here after so many painful hurdles.

“It’s like a miracle,” Ms. Matrooshi told the BBC.

Source: Kidspot.com.au