New techniques designed to preserve a women’s fertility after cancer treatments

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) today issued a report on new techniques designed to preserve a women’s fertility after cancer treatments by using egg or ovarian tissue freezing technology.

The report concludes that these techniques are rapidly evolving and hold great promise.  Based on the limited experience with egg freezing thus far, the technique also appears to be safe for the patient and offspring.  However, at present both egg and ovarian tissue cryopreservation remain investigational procedures that should only be performed with the formal approval and oversight of an Institutional Review Board.

The report of the ASRM Practice Committee entitled “Ovarian Tissue and Oocyte Cyropreservation” appears in the October issue of the Society’s journal Fertility and Sterility and was released today at the 60th Annual Meeting of the ASRM.

The report examines the latest research in this fast moving field. It points out that women diagnosed with cancer generally need to start treatments very quickly and, therefore, often do not have time to undergo a complete IVF cycle freezing the resulting embryos. The option of freezing oocytes and ovarian tissue would require less time, and not require the women to have a potential father or sperm donor identified.

Recent studies show improvement in the reliability of oocyte freezing treatments, and there now has been a case report of a birth following transplantation of previously frozen ovarian tissue.  The Committee concludes, however, that at present neither oocyte nor ovarian tissue preservation should be offered or marketed as a means to defer reproductive aging.  

(The Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Ovarian Tissue and Oocyte Cryopreservation, Fertility and Sterility, Vol. 82, No. 4, October 2004.)

“The ongoing research in this area is quite promising,” stated Committee Chair Marc A. Fritz, MD, of the University of North Carolina. “However, at this time these options should only be offered to patients enrolled in approved clinical trials.”

Marian Damewood, MD, President of the ASRM said “We are proud of our ongoing efforts to keep our members, patients and the public informed on the latest advances in reproductive medicine.  Infertility care is a rapidly changing field and patients need to be able to make informed choices.”

http://www.asrm.org