Switching off the biological clock

The idea of women’s race against time to start a family has been a popular topic lately. Financial stability, career, husband and kids…who has time for it all?

Well, it's your lucky day. Doctors have just figured out how to freeze ovarian tissue (Egg-freezing is so passé). Women now have the choice to extend their fertility (and even undo menopause) without having to go through in vitro fertilization. While women are fertile, they have bits of their ovaries removed and frozen. Then when they are ready to have kids, the ovaries are sewn back in. It first started eight years ago as an experiment for women who became infertile because of cancer treatments. So far, 28 healthy babies have been born from this process.

Jezebel reports

"This transplant technique was first reported on eight years ago, yet it has remained experimental and has only been done by a few specialists. But evidence is growing that this is a practice worth expanding. One piece of proof was presented at the conference by Dr. Gianluca Gennarelli from Clinica Universitaria Sant'Anna in Turin, Italy. The case involved a 21-year-old woman who in 2003 was diagnosed with cancer and was set to receive fertility-destroying chemotherapy. Some of her ovarian tissue was collected using laparoscopic surgery. It was then frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen. She underwent the chemo and, as predicted, became infertile. In 2010, she was ready to have children, and so they sewed 32 fragments of her thawed tissue back onto her ovaries. After two months, some of her ovarian function returned. Then she began having menstrual cycles and ovulating. Fifteen months after the transplant, she became pregnant without any additional medical intervention. She gave birth to a healthy baby in March of 2012. That is pretty amazing."

This is a total game changer. While a woman’s body still has to be healthy enough to carry a pregnancy, she may no longer have to live under the oppressive tick of her biological clock. Which means more women can have it all, while taking all the time they need to do it.