Natural hormone replacement therapy with a functioning ovary after the menopause: dream or reality?

Publication date: Available online 30 June 2018Source: Reproductive BioMedicine OnlineAuthor(s): Jacques Donnez, Marie-Madeleine DolmansAbstractAt the dawn of humanity, it was rare to live beyond the age of 35 years, so the ovary was intended to function for a woman's entire life. Nowadays, it is not unusual for women to live into their 80s. This means that many of them spend 30–40% of their lives in the menopause at increased risk of various conditions associated with an absence of oestrogens (cardiovascular disease, bone mineral density loss). Reimplantation of frozen–thawed ovarian tissue is able to restore long-term ovarian endocrine function that can persist for more than 7 years (12 years if the procedure is repeated). If ovarian tissue reimplantation is capable of restoring ovarian activity after menopause induced by chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, or a combination of all three, why not propose it to recover sex steroid secretion after natural menopause and prevent menopause-related conditions in the ageing population? In this application, the graft site could be outside the pelvic cavity, e.g., forearm or rectus muscle. Could ovarian tissue freezing at a young age followed by reimplantation upon reaching menopause be the anti-ageing therapy of the future? Sufficient existing evidence now surely merits serious debate.
Source: Reproductive BioMedicine Online - Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: research