Background

Cryopreservation of ovarian tissue is a technique to bank oocytes (eggs) in situations where the woman may lose all her eggs from a medical treatment, disease process, or even the natural loss from aging. Potential uses for this technique include restoring fertility and normal ovarian hormone production without the use of medications.

Our Reproductive Tissue Bank can cryopreserve small portions of the human ovary. Thin slices of ovarian tissue can be recovered laparoscopically and successfully frozen in liquid nitrogen. The immature eggs contained in the ovary survive the freezing process better than mature, ovulated eggs.

Cancer Patients

This technique has important implications for women undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer treatment. Such treatment can irreversibly damage the ovaries and destroy the eggs, rendering a woman sterile. Not all women will become infertile. The effects depend upon the agent used and the age of the woman. Women can elect to have some tissue stored so that if they do become infertile, some tissue will be protected from the effects of the drugs.

Research in in vitro maturation of immature oocytes from frozen ovarian tissue is showing promising results and this is a clear option for the future. Ovarian tissue has been successfully re-implanted in a small number of healthy women volunteers in the United States, where it has functioned normally for a few weeks. Animal studies have been more successful and the ovaries have survived long enough to allow natural conception in sheep. In mice, the ovarian tissue has been cultured in the laboratory and mature, genetically competent egg cells have been recovered, fertilized, and re-implanted, leading to live births.

Ovarian Cryopreservation Service at
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation

You may discuss the details of this procedure with a Reproductive Endocrinologist by calling the
Department of Obstetrics-Gynecology at
(216) 444-6601 or 1-800-CCF-CARE, extension 46601
OR
the Reproductive Tissue Bank at
1-866-9BANKING (866-922-6546)(Toll Free) or (216) 444-8182.