Lloyd-Hart’s surgeon, Dr. Kutluk Oktay, designed the new treatment to help patients whose ovaries are damaged by chemotherapy. Oktay says the surgery might work better than freezing eggs for later use, since egg cells nestled in ovarian tissue are hardier than mature eggs harvested after ovulation. Oktay says his technique isn’t a cure-all for sterility: “This is not an end to menopause,” he cautions. But the surgery is a powerful advance in the struggle against infertility.
1 Strips of tissue–each 5- to 8 mm long– are removed from a fertile ovary
2 The strips are cooled gradually to about minus 350 degrees in a cryogenic tube
3 Later, when the woman is menopausal, the strips are thawed and sewn onto frames
4 The frames are implanted near a fallopian tube and stimulated with egg-maturing hormones
