Aussie doctors in breakthrough procedure that could preserve women's fertility

AUSSIE doctors may have found a way to preserve a woman's fertility indefinitely but would you want to have a baby at 60?.

pregnant

A GROUNDBREAKING procedure resulting in Australia's first pregnancy using frozen ovarian tissue could lead to the ability to preserve women's fertility indefinitely.

Monash IVF implanted ovarian tissue into a 43-year-old Melbourne woman six years after she beat breast cancer.

The tissue was originally removed from the woman in 2005 before she started cancer treatment. It was reinserted in April this year in the hope that natural ovulation would occur.

It did and the women is now six-and-a-half weeks pregnant, Monash IVF director, Professor Gab Kovacs, said.

Prof Kovacs said it was only the 20th pregnancy worldwide using the method.

"Fertility doctors all see young women with cancer who want to preserve their fertility," he said.

"These days cancer treatments are very effective and the women go on to survive, but without their fertility.

"The beauty of this technology is that a woman can see a doctor one day and have the tissue removed the next - there's no delay. It's simple and any gynecologist can do it."

Professor Kovacs was taught the method by Israeli fertility specialists, who outlined the procedure on the back of an envelope.

The other benefit of the implantation method is cost, according to Professor Kovacs, who said it was much cheaper than IVF.

"Right now we don't know what the success rate for the procedure is but it has great potential," he said.

"This could be the way to go for women who want to preserve their fertility after cancer."