BELGIUM: FIRST-EVER BABY IS BORN AFTER FROZEN OVARIAN TISSUE WAS TRANSPLANTED BACK INTO MOTHER
Record ID:
646883
BELGIUM: FIRST-EVER BABY IS BORN AFTER FROZEN OVARIAN TISSUE WAS TRANSPLANTED BACK INTO MOTHER
- Title: BELGIUM: FIRST-EVER BABY IS BORN AFTER FROZEN OVARIAN TISSUE WAS TRANSPLANTED BACK INTO MOTHER
- Date: 26th September 2004
- Summary: (W4) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (SEPTEMBER 24, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. MV MOTHER OUARDA TOUIRAT ENTERING PRESS CONFERENCE ROOM IN A WHEELCHAIR; WIDE OF PROFESSOR JACQUES DONNEZ, MOTHER OUARDA TOUIRAT AND BABY TAMARA 0.24 2. SCU FATHER (MALIC) TAKING BABY TAMARA; CLOSE UP ON BABY'S FACE; WIDE OF THE SCENE; CLOSE UP ON FATHER AND BABY; CLOSE UP ON BABY FACE; WIDE OF FATHER MOTHER AND BABY; SCU MOTHER HOLDING BABY'S HAND - PAN ON BABY'S FACE -SOUNDBITE (English) OUARDA TOUIRAT SAYING : "I am very very happy." (REPORTER QUESTION) "I was crying first and it is a dream. It was a dream. 1.41 3. SCU FATHER WATCHING BABY PAN ON MOTHER AND BABY 2.00 4. SOUNDBITE (French) OUARDA TOUIRAT SAYING "It is altogether a message of hope and a big miracle for us, the parents, and for the professor Donnez and science altogether." 2.08 5. CLOSE UP ON ECHOGRAPH PROJECTED ON THE WALL ZOOM OUT ON FAMILY 2.11 6. MV MEDICAL SCIENTISTS TEAM LISTENING WITH PAN TO TEAM LEADER PROFESSOR JACQUES DONNEZ EXPLAINING OPERATION; CLOSE UP ON SLIDES 2.38 7. SOUNDBITE (English) PROFESSOR JACQUES DONNEZ SAYING: "It is a big message of hope for all the women with a cancer who have to go through chemotherapy, it think it is very very important." 2.49 8. WIDE OF JOURNALISTS INTERVIEWING 2.52 9. SOUNDBITE (French) PROFESSOR JACQUES DONNEZ SAYING: "The message I want to spread is: Let's take into account not only our patients' survival but also their quality of life and let's propose them (cryopreservation) systematically." 3.01 10. WIDE OF THE FAMILY, ZOOM IN ON BABY BEING PUT BACK IN BED AND TAKEN AWAY FAMILY LEAVING BEHIND UNDER THE EYES OF THE MEDICAL TEAM. 3.50 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 11th October 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- Country: Belgium
- Reuters ID: LVA31M8QOGTMHQ4DR80UC19HED77
- Story Text: The first-ever baby is born after frozen overian
tissue was transplanted back into the mother.
A Belgian woman has given birth to the first baby
born after an ovarian tissue transplant, a medical
breakthrough that brings hope to young cancer patients
whose fertility may be damaged by treatment.
The baby, a healthy girl named Tamara, was born at 7:05
p.m. (1705 GMT) on Thursday in a hospital in Brussels and
weighed 3.72 kg (8.2 lb).
Her mother, 32-year-old Ourda Touirat, thought for a
long time she would never be a mother.
"I'm very happy, very happy. I was crying at first
and it's a dream it was a dream," she said.
Doctors, led by Professor Jacques Donnez, head of the
Department of Gynaecology and Andrology at the Cliniques
Universitaires Saint-Luc, removed and froze ovarian tissue
from Touirat in 1997, when she was 25.
Touirat had Stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma and needed both
chemo- and radiotherapy. Such treatments can save patients'
lives but can also damage or destroy their fertility.
The ovarian transplant was carried out six years after
her treatment, when doctors declared she was free of
cancer. Four months after the ovarian tissue was
transplanted Touirat's ovarian function was restored.
Baby Tamara was conceived naturally after the transplant.
"It is a big message of hope for all the women with a
cancer who have to go through chemotherapy. It think it is
very very important," Donnez said.
Using keyhole surgery, Donnez and his team took small
samples from Touirat's left ovary, cooled them to minus 196
degrees centigrade and stored them in liquid nitrogen.
"Ovarian tissue cryopreservation should be an option
offered to all young women diagnosed with cancer, in
conjunction with other existing options for fertility
preservation," Donnez said in a statement.
Women are born with a finite number of eggs which are
formed in follicles in the ovaries. The number of eggs
diminish as a woman ages until there are very few left and
menopause begins.
Although the aim of the ovarian tissue transplant is to
help young infertile cancer patients to become mothers, the
advance could also enable women to postpone childbearing
past the natural menopause by freezing tissue when they are
young and having it transplanted later.
The researchers published an article online in the
medical journal The Lancet, at thelancet.com, which gave
details of the procedure, illustrated with photographs.
Other teams of scientists have been working on ovarian
transplantation but the Belgian team said they were the
first to achieve a pregnancy and now a birth.
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