Experts for In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) in Britain have developed a surgical procedure that could postpone the onset of menopause for up to 20 years. The procedure advances by removing a small piece of the patients’ ovarian tissue. The relevant tissues are sliced up and frozen for the purpose of preservation. Then used for implantation in the future. When the woman reaches the ideal age for menopause, the frozen tissue is thawed out and grafted back into the body. Thereby restoring the woman’s declining sex hormones, and halting menopause.
The surgery is administered to women up to the age of 40 by ProFam; a Birmingham-based company. They offer the services a cost ranging between £7,000 and £11,000. Simon Fishel, the founder of ProFam, and President of the UK Care Fertility Group, said that this surgery is capable of handling anxiety, and insomnia. There will be other health conditions that presage the reproductive stage.
“This has the potential to be of significant benefit to any woman who may want to delay the menopause for any reason, or those women who would have taken HRT,” Fishel said to The Guardian.
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Specialist mentioned that similar procedures have been adopted with cancer patients. The specialists add that it would benefit women who experience adverse heart conditions, bone-weakening osteoporosis, and other serious menopause-triggered conditions. According to them, a total of nine women have so far undergone the procedure. Therefore, these women will have their tissues replaced in the coming decades, provided the tissues survive the process.
The length of time for which the procedure would put off menopause. Nonetheless, the specialists stated that it would depend on the age at which the surgery was performed. This could last up to 20 years for women age 25.
“This is the first project in the world to provide healthy women ovarian tissue cryopreservation purely to delay the menopause,” Yousri Afifin, ProFam’s chief medical officer.
