To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/09/23 22:32
Subject: Re: [K-list] Menopause and the K
From: raymond.wand
On 1999/09/23 22:32, raymond.wand posted thus to the K-list:
About the menpause..................
Thursday, September 23, 1999 Published at 18:36 GMT 19:36 UK
Menopause scientist urges restraint
Professor Roger Gosden: 'emergency use only'
A revolutionary ovary grafting technique should only be used to help women
facing infertility through cancer treatment or surgery, says the British
doctor who pioneered it.
Some scientists have suggested that the breakthrough could be used to help
older women conceive, or reverse the symptoms of the menopause.
The BBC's Niall Dickson: "For many women this technique offers hope"
But Professor Roger Gosden, of Leeds University says the technique should
only be considered as an emergency measure for children and younger women
who are about to lose their future fertility.
He said: "There is much speculation about about how this technique can be
used in other ways - and maybe one day it will be.
"But we wouldn't want to put a perfectly healthy woman through a procedure
which was still experimental.
"We certainly haven't aimed to reverse the menopause because we feel that
the priority is to help women conceive using their own eggs."
A segment of ovary from a 30-year-old American woman, Margaret Lloyd-Hart,
which had been removed and frozen several years ago, was grafted back inside
her in February by Dr Kutluk Oktay at New York Methodist Hospital.
Margaret Lloyd-Hart following her operation
Dr Oktay is a former research fellow of Professor Gosden, who pioneered the
technique
Doctors now report that it has taken successfully and Ms Lloyd-Hart has
started ovulating, although she does not yet have a full menstrual cycle.
Experts at Leeds and elsewhere were keen to stress that the release of an
egg did not mean that Ms Lloyd-Hart could have a successful pregnancy.
The 30-year-old who lives in Arizona, had an ovary removed last year to
treat a benign medical condition. Her other ovary had been taken out when
she was 17 because of a cyst.
Experts say the new technique could have a greater effect on human fertility
than the advent of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) 20 years ago.
The grafts could be used to treat sterility caused by the onset of premature
menopause and protect fertility in patients undergoing cancer treatment.
Dr Kutluk Oktay: Ground-breaking
Dr Oktay said: "Children as young as four years old are having their ovaries
frozen so that, in the future, they can have the tissue returned to their
bodies."
The grafts could also delay the menopause so that even elderly women could
conceive.
And they may eventually prove a safer substitute for the widely-used hormone
replacement therapy (HRT).
But Professor James Drife, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians
and Gynaecologists, said that the production of an egg did not automatically
mean a pregnancy was possible.
He told the BBC: "There are many steps between successful hormonal
production and the release of the egg and the fertilisation of the egg. The
state of the egg is absolutely critical."
He added that it was unsure whether it would ever prove more effective than
currently-available HRT.
Prof Gosden will report on the successful operation at the annual meeting of
the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Toronto, Canada.
Tony Rutherford:"Patient selection is very important"
The society's president Larry Lipshultz said: "This should give great hope
to women suffering from ovarian and other cancers, and may lead to
successful treatment for other causes of infertility."
The new procedure also opens up the possibility of donor ovaries being
transplanted into infertile women.
The long-term applications of the technique are likely to reopen an ethical
debate similar to that which greeted the news last year that a 60-year-old
woman had become pregnant after egg donation.
Ovary grafts fall outside the control of the Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Authority, which is concerned only with mature eggs and sperm,
while ovaries contain immature eggs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_455000/455204.stm
Regards,
Raymond
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