(CBC News) — A team at the University of Saskatchewan wants to develop a service to help young ovarian cancer survivors have kids.
Researchers are trying to establish a reproductive cryobiology research program, which would allow girls diagnosed with ovarian cancer to freeze their ovarian tissue, so they could still have children after treatment.
“For many women and almost all girls, the one issue that they face is that most cancer treatments affect their future fertility options,” said James Benson, an assistant professor of biology at the U of S, while on CBC Radio’s Saskatoon Morning. He’s one of the researchers trying to launch the program.
“For women, there are some additional options that can happen. We can freeze their eggs; we can make eggs and turn them into embryos and freeze those embryos. But for girls, especially, there are no options to preserve their fertility.”
Cryobiology focuses on biological samples in lower-than-normal temperatures. (…)