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Fertility Preservation Research The Center for Reproductive Research at Northwestern is developing new techniques for the long term preservation of human ovarian tissue. Scientists are exploring ways to remove immature eggs from this tissue and to mature them in the laboratory so that they can potentially be fertilized. Once it is determined that a method works, it may be possible to use cryopreserved (frozen) ovarian tissue or immature eggs to initiate pregnancies after cancer treatment has been completed and the patient has recovered. At this time, the only pregnancies resulting from this research are in mice and there are no guarantees if and when these procedures will produce human babies. However, women who are interested in cryopreserving one of their ovaries for possible future use and for furthering research are encouraged to participate in a clinical research project. Eligible participants will have one ovary surgically removed in an outpatient procedure called a laproscopy before starting their cancer treatment. Eighty percent of the ovary will be preserved for the patient's future use should the technology succeed and 20% will be used by researchers to explore ways to extract immature eggs and allow them to develop in a laboratory environment. If you are interested in this study, let your oncologist know before starting your treatment. A brochure describing this protocol in detail is available. Since this is a research protocol, most of the costs will be covered by the study. Northwestern scientists and physicians are developing a new discipline called Oncofertility and are spearheading a collaboration of national experts that include biophysicists, biomaterials biologists, clinical oncologists, reproductive biologists, psychologists, ethicists and legal scholars. The purpose of this discipline is to better understand the impact of cancer treatment on fertility, identify new technologies to preserve fertility, and to explore the psychosocial role fertility has on survivorship.
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