Women are thought to be born with all their eggs. Between puberty and the menopause, this number steadily dwindles, with fertility thought to peak in the early 20s.
Around the age of 50, which is when menopause normally occurs, the ovaries stop releasing eggs — but most women are already largely infertile by this point, as ovulation becomes more infrequent in the run-up.
The menopause comes all-too-soon for many women, says Sfakianoudis. The age of motherhood is creeping up, and more women are having children in their 40s than ever before. But as more women delay pregnancy, many find themselves struggling to get pregnant. The menopause also comes early — before the age of 40 — for around 1 per cent of women, either because of a medical condition or certain cancer treatments, for example.
To turn back the fertility clock for women who have experienced early menopause, Sfakianoudis and his colleagues have turned to a blood treatment that is used to help wounds heal faster. It is widely used to speed the repair of damaged bones and muscles, although its effectiveness is unclear.
The treatment may work by stimulating tissue regeneration. Nine women have so far had the procedure to remove and freeze their ovarian tissue with a view to delaying the menopause when they are older.
Doctors use keyhole surgery to remove a small piece of ovarian tissue, which is then sliced up and frozen to preserve it. When the women enter the menopause, potentially decades from now, the frozen tissue can be thawed out and grafted back into the body. To restore falling hormone levels, doctors typically choose a site with a good blood supply, such as the armpit.
Doctors already use a similar procedure to protect the fertility of girls and women who are about to have cancer treatment. Clinical trials can sometimes allow for more affordable treatment. Trials also have specific recruitment criteria, such as being over 35 or the ability to receive IVF treatments at an out-of-town clinic.
When combined with IVF, which is recommended when trying to get pregnant after ovarian rejuvenation, out-of-pocket costs are high. If your insurance company covers IVF, that may help reduce cost. You may decide to go the natural route with melatonin or hormone replacement therapy in place of ovarian rejuvenation. Perimenopause can cause a lot of menstrual changes before your period ultimately stops.
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Learn causes, symptoms, and more. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Is reversal really possible? They injected PRP into the ovaries of women who had already undergone the menopause and say they found it restarted their menstrual cycles, causing them to experience periods again. From these "restarted" periods, the researchers have been able to collect and fertilise eggs which the women have released, raising the possibility that they could be implanted in their uterus and the women could subsequently have children.
However, the team have yet to implant any eggs to test the theory. One woman who responded well to the treatment was years-old and had undergone the menopause five years previously. Researcher Konstantinos Sfakianoudis told 'The New Scientist': "It offers a window of hope that menopausal women will be able to get pregnant using their own genetic material. It seems to work in about two-thirds of cases. We see changes in biochemical patterns, a restoration of menses, and egg recruitment and fertilisation.
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