The ovary is the most important female reproductive endocrine organ, once damaged, can lead to permanent loss of fertility, and seriously affect the physical and mental health and quality of life of women.
Oncology is a medical technology that is used to treat cancer patients in the United States and other European countries.
Recently, Prof. Ruan Xiangyan's team from the Department of Secretion at Beijing Maternity Hospital has successfully completed the first case in China.
How much does ovarian tissue freezing cost?
The fee for egg freezing is not quite the same depending on the organization, but it generally consists of two parts: egg retrieval procedure + storage fee. Some storage fees are calculated according to the number of eggs and some are calculated according to the time of storage. Some domestic media once reported that the price of egg retrieval and freezing carrier in a hospital is 20,000 yuan, and the storage fee is 1,000 yuan/month. It works out to cost more than 30,000 yuan even if it is only stored for one year.
Is there a difference in function after freezing ovarian tissue?
The ovarian tissue transplanted through freezing is still a part of the patient's own tissue, it is just equivalent to transplanting it back into the patient's own body again after it has been preserved for a period of time outside the body, so there is no difference between the transplanted ovarian tissue and the normal ovarian tissue in terms of function. The transplanted ovarian tissue will not only be able to secrete various female hormones as normal ovarian tissue, but will also be able to regularly recruit follicles to grow, develop and ovulate, so that the patient will have the chance and hope of pregnancy. In fact, the natural pregnancy rate after ovarian tissue transplantation can be as high as 50% or more, and assisted reproduction techniques can be used if there are tubal or other problems. Therefore, we can see that there is no functional difference between transplanted ovarian tissue and normal ovarian tissue, because it is autologous transplantation, there is no rejection reaction after transplantation, and there is no need to take any anti-rejection reaction medicine.
Does it cause menopause?
In observational clinical studies, removal of all the ovaries unilaterally is associated with an earlier age of menopause by about 1 to 2 years, and the weak correlation between unilateral oophorectomy and age of menopause can be explained by compensatory growth of the remaining ovaries. Such compensatory growth has been observed in other species, and it has been suggested that new primordial follicles may be derived from germline stem cells and that oocytes are derived from primordial germline cells in reproductive-age females. In prepubertal girls, unilateral removal of the entire ovary is recommended because of the small size of the ovary. Unilateral ovary removal does not affect future hormone production.