This pregnancy is unique in Austria – health
The patient was diagnosed with cancer 15 years ago and had ovarian tissue frozen. Now she has successfully gotten pregnant.
At the Innsbruck university clinic, there was an Austria-wide pregnancy. The patient was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma over 15 years ago. This cancer of the lymphatic system is often treated with a very aggressive form of chemotherapy. Unfortunately, a side effect of this can be that menstrual bleeding does not occur, affected women no longer ovulate and are therefore no longer able to become pregnant. This was also the case with the affected patient. The patient had therefore had ovarian tissue frozen more than 15 years ago after the diagnosis in a procedure that was still experimental at the time.
disease Hodgkinalso Hodgkin–lymphoma called, is a malignant disease of the lymphatic system. She is named after the English physician and pathologist Thomas Hodgkin who first described the disease in 1832. A main feature of the disease is swelling of the lymph nodes (lymphoma). The distinction between Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is only possible through the histological examination of affected tissue.
Because there is lymphatic tissue throughout the body, Hodgkin’s disease can develop anywhere in the body. The lymph nodes are most commonly affected in Hodgkin lymphoma, but other organs such as the lungs, liver, bone marrow and spleen can also be affected, especially in advanced stages of the disease. Without treatment the disease is almost always fatal. However, most patients can be cured with the treatments available today.
Hodgkin’s disease occurs when certain cells of the lymphatic tissue, especially the B lymphocytes, degenerate as a result of changes in the genetic material (“Hodgkin cells”).
With this type of cancer, it is essential to start treatment as quickly as possible, which is why the doctors at the Innsbruck clinic decided more than 15 years ago to use a method that was still experimental at the time. If a young woman before chemotherapy wants to have the chance of a later pregnancy, then it was customary to freeze oocytes.
The couple wants a girl, gets a boy – the hospital complains
Cancer cure is followed by tissue transplantation
The patient’s cancer was successfully treated. “Last year we reinserted the ovarian tissue, on which the patient developed her own menstrual cycle just a few weeks after the transplantation,” says the director of the Innsbruck University Clinic for Gynecological Endocrinology and Obstetrics, Bettina Toth her pregnant naturally. She is currently expecting her first child,” Toth concludes.
Cryopreservation procedure successful
The technique of freezing ovarian tissue has existed in Innsbruck since 2003. In the past, it was customary to freeze egg cells to give chemo patients the chance of a possible future pregnancy. However, this requires hormonal stimulation over a period of two to three weeks. However, some cancer patients – like this one, who was diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system – need to start chemotherapy right away.
First pregnancy with this method
In the past few years, there has already been a pregnancy and childbirth after transplantation of ovarian tissue at the Innsbruck clinic. However, the patient at the time still had her own menstrual cycle, so the influence of the transplanted tissue could not be clearly delimited. Bettina Toth, Director of the Innsbruck University Clinic for Gynecological Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine, underlined the importance of this event, making the said pregnancy the first in Austria that can be proven to have occurred with the help of this method.
This woman is 32 and has been pregnant 9 times