Ovarian tissue cryopreservation for patients

For patients about to receive chemotherapy, radiotherapy or to undergo a surgical procedure, loss or impairment of fertility is a major issue. For males, sperm banking is a standard accepted procedure to circumvent loss or damage to spermatozoa and this has been undertaken in this unit since 1975 (Steele et al., 1995). For women there is no established procedure for gamete storage. Embryo preservation is not an option for single women or even for those in a stable relationship, as treatment would have to be delayed while ovarian stimulation and oocyte retrieval took place. With the general shortage of donor oocytes, the possibility of maturing primordial follicles from fetal ovaries has become a subject for debate (HFEA 1995: Recent deliberations). In animals, the use of frozen ovarian tissue has been encouraging with a report of a live birth in lamb after orthotopic transplantation (Gosden et al., 1995). Media attention to the future prospect for freezing ovarian tissue has meant that pressure from patients is likely to increase either for information or as requests to freeze the ovarian tissue which could irretrievably be lost as a result of surgery and/or treatment. In the absence of well defined procedures and technologies, should women be given the chance to preserve ovarian tissue prior to receiving intensive chemotherapy or radiotherapy?