They say that it is possible to delay menopause until 20 years with an intervention

The technique is proposed by a Birmingham / Shutterstock company

With a self-transplant of ovarian tissue obtained during the fertile period, it would be possible to delay menopause until twenty years old, according to a team of British doctors who began to offer this type of intervention. Without proven results, its effectiveness is however questionable by fertility specialists.

The procedure, which began to be proposed by a Birmingham pharmaceutical company for around $ 8,500, consists of basically removing a small amount of ovarian tissue that is cryopreserved until menopause, then it is reinserted to restore the level hormone.

The time that menopause could take with this technique depends on the age at which the tissue is removed and the age at which it is reimplanted. "A tissue taken from a 25-year-old woman could delay menopause for 20 years, while if a person's 40-year-old tissue was removed, it could only delay the onset of five-year-olds" , explained ProFam to the firm.

This alternative – according to officials – could benefit thousands of women suffering from serious health problems, such as heart disease and osteoporosis, among other conditions badociated with the end of fertility; but it would also improve the lives of millions of women by delaying the onset of the most common symptoms of menopause, ranging from hot flashes and mood swings to difficulty sleeping.

Beyond the postponement of menopause, doctors believe that this procedure could allow the national health system to achieve substantial savings, reducing the costs of treatment of menopause and, more seriously, the problems related to heart disease and disease. # 39; osteoporosis.

second thoughts

"Our project is the first project in the world that offers cryopreservation of ovarian tissue to healthy women simply to delay menopause," said Yousri Afifi, medical director of ProFam at the British newspaper The Sunday Times.

Some clinics may already use a similar procedure to protect the fertility of girls and women about to receive cancer treatment. In these cases, physicians usually collect ovarian tissue prior to chemotherapy and freeze it to offer these patients the opportunity to be mothers after overcoming the disease. If the woman wishes to have children in the future, the tissue is thawed and re-planted next to the fallopian tubes, which collect the mature eggs released by it.

The truth is that even if the same technique has already been tested in young women, doubts remain as to the effectiveness of the alternative proposed by ProFam. Richard Anderson, deputy director of the Center for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, who has been freezing ovarian tissue for young and old women for 25 years, said it was "an old story" that transplants can restore hormonal levels. "" What is less clear is that it is a safe and effective way to do it, "he added.