Médecine de la Reproduction
MENUEmbryo, oocyte and ovarian cortex cryopreservation Volume 10, issue 4, juillet-août 2008
- Key words: fertility, ovarian cryopreservation, cancer
- DOI : 10.1684/mte.2008.0166
- Page(s) : 265-71
- Published in: 2008
Deleterious effects of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy on female fertility are well known. Before treatments at risk for fertility, it is important to offer fertility preservation methods. Three main assisted reproductive technologies are theoretically feasible: embryo, mature oocyte and ovarian cortex cryopreservation, depending on the oncologic treatment needed, dosage and duration, patient’s age, marital status, emergency of cancer treatment and tumour receptivity to hormones. At least two of these techniques (mature oocyte and ovarian cortex cryopreservation) are recent and associated to still modest results in terms of pregnancies rates. It is therefore important to properly assess the risk/benefit balance, to avoid the patients to be exposed to a greater risk for ovarian function due to the fertility preservation methods, than to the oncologic treatments.