Aged 23, the young mother suffering from sickle cell disease (genetic blood disease) had undergone heavy chemotherapy a few years earlier. The aim of this treatment was to prepare for a bone marrow transplant and to avoid any rejection of the transplanted cells by its own cells. The chemotherapy would probably have rendered the patient sterile, which is why she underwent a sample of ovarian tissue which had been frozen before administration of the treatment.
Three years later, the patient recovered her ovarian tissue through a transplant and became pregnant in just a few months. This happy outcome, the result of a collaboration between the CHU de Besançon and the CHU de Limoges, is a first in France.
It gives real hope to women undergoing potentially sterilizing anti-cancer treatment who are offered an ovarian tissue sample.
