In the IVF department of Yeni Yüzyıl University Gaziosmanpaşa Hospital, Dr. Instructor Member Murat Keskin gave information about 'ovarian tissue freezing'.
“Women are born with eggs in their ovaries, and from puberty, they ovulate one egg every month and have the chance to conceive and have children,” said Dr. Instructor Member Murat Keskin said, “However, the female hormone called Estrogen, which is secreted from this egg that develops every month, contributes to the health of all parts of the body such as skin, heart, bone metabolism and sexuality. However, these eggs have a lifespan and every woman eventually loses these eggs and enters menopause. Although women start not to menstruate at the age of 49-50 on average, healthy eggs in the ovaries end around the age of 45 on average. About 1 percent of women also experience early menopause.” he said.
Talking about women's menopause, Dr. Instructor Murat Keskin said, “Women experience various problems such as hot flushes, shortness of breath, palpitations, psychological problems in the late period, osteoporosis and heart diseases, with the decrease in estrogen hormone in the menopause. Nowadays, with the prolongation of human life, women spend a significant part of their lives in menopause. Although various hormone treatments can be applied for this, they are not applied to every woman since there are findings that they increase the risk of breast cancer, albeit slightly. For this purpose, menopause can be delayed by ensuring that the woman is not deprived of the estrogen hormone produced by her own ovaries for many years.” used his statements.
Giving information about ovarian tissue freezing, Dr. Instructor Member Murat Keskin said, “As it is known, methods such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy in cancer treatments or surgical procedures such as ovarian surgeries cause damage to the eggs in women, and the chances of these patients to have children may be almost non-existent, or they may end completely. Ovarian freezing methods, which have been applied for more than twenty years in order to protect the chance of having a child in girls and women who will be treated for cancer, have been developed further, and today, the frozen ovarian tissue is transplanted back to the patient to have a child. This method is no longer experimental and has taken its place in clinical practice.” he said.
Mentioning that the most important advantage of this method over egg freezing is that it can freeze thousands of eggs, Dr. Instructor Member Murat Keskin concluded his words as follows:
“As it is known, the limited number of eggs that can be frozen with the egg freezing method, which is more commonly used today to preserve fertility, is an important disadvantage of this method. These studies have given us the idea that ovarian freezing and retransplantation can also delay menopause. It is possible to maintain the ovarian functions by transplanting the ovarian tissue, which will be taken and frozen before the menopause, to the patient after the menopause, and thus regaining its own estrogen hormone. Moreover, it is predicted that the frozen ovarian pieces will not be divided at once, but by repeating this process several times, so that the woman will not enter menopause for many years.