Fertility preservation in patients with ovarian tumours - a single centre experience

A report of the 15 years'-experience in fertility preservation in women with ovarian tumours, at the Fertility Preservation Centre of the Unidade Local de Saúde Coimbra, the only Centre in Portugal performing fertility preservation techniques in pre-pubertal patients.

A retrospective analysis of our centre database was made, including pre-pubertal and fertile-aged female patients diagnosed with ovarian tumours referred to a Fertility Preservation appointment from January 2009 to January 2024.

Twenty-one patients were referred for a fertility preservation appointment and 62 % had oocytes or ovarian tissue cryopreserved, seven of them after tumour recurrence. Six women had their oocytes cryopreserved and despite the site of the tumour, we achieved a medium oocyte yield of five oocytes in metaphase II. One patient has already used her frozen oocytes, but embryo development arrested before transfer. The youngest patient in whom ovarian tissue was frozen was a 4-months' old infant. Ovarian tissue thawing and transplantation was already done in two patients of 31 and 35 years old, but function was not restored. No live births were registered so far.

Fertility preservation options should be offered to every woman with an ovarian tumour before oncological treatment, considering the ongoing research in this field. Further monitoring is needed to better evaluate both recurrence-risks and live births' rates.