Women in 20s urged to freeze and store whole sections of their ovaries

WOMEN in their twenties who want to delay having children should store sections of their ovaries to improve their future chances of becoming pregnant, according to leading fertility expert.

While some women opt to freeze collections of eggs to try to ensure their future fertility, this leaves them with only a small number to try to conceive with.

Dr Sherman Silber, who carried out the world's first full ovary transplant, said storing larger pieces of an ovary meant thousands of eggs could be retained, increasing the chances of having a baby. He stressed that women in their twenties should be thinking of having the procedure now.

Two clinics in the UK currently store ovarian tissue but only for medical reasons - for example if a patient is having cancer treatment that would damage their fertility - rather than social reasons, such as the wish to delay motherhood.

The chances of conceiving reduce with age, with younger women generally finding it easier to become pregnant than those in their late 30s or 40s.

Dr Silber said that banking one third of an ovary at an earlier age would mean about 60,000 eggs could be captured in the tissue, which could then be transplanted back when the woman is older.

Removing slivers of ovarian tissue leaves the rest of the ovary intact, so women can still try to conceive naturally.

Dr Silber said there were disadvantages to conventional egg freezing, which is offered at clinics across the UK, with only about five to ten eggs collected with each retrieval. Of freezing ovarian tissue he said: "One procedure and the whole thing is done. A woman could freeze her ovary at age 19 and have a 19-year-old ovary aged 40.

"We are in the middle of an infertility epidemic across the developed world and the reason is our society is changing.

"People are not trying to have children or are not even thinking about getting married until they are 35.

"Women who are 25 or 28, some of them are not that concerned yet and might think they will meet the right man in the next few years. But they don't know what turn their life is going to take."

Dr Silber said women facing cancer treatment, which could make them infertile, should also bank ovarian tissue.

Dr Silber's St Louis clinic in the US has performed three transplants using frozen banked ovarian tissue, resulting in three births, and eight using fresh tissue, resulting in nine births. Dr Silber has stored tissue from up to 60 women for lifestyle reasons and from 80 cancer patients. Worldwide, 23 babies have been born from ovary or ovarian tissue transplants.

Only seven centres worldwide offer ovarian tissue freezing for social reasons, such as delaying motherhood.Dr Silber is now teaching doctors at other centres how to perform the operation.

In the UK the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority licenses clinics storing reproductive materials, including ovarian tissue. A spokesman said: "If ovarian tissue storage is offered to patients then it is vital they are given detailed information about the treatment, in particular the risks."

Tony Rutherford, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said it was too soon to recommend widespread banking of ovarian tissue. "We don't know how many people have had grafts and we don't know how many have been successful and how many have failed," he said.