Whole ovary cryopreservation with vascular transplantation – A future development in female oncofertility

Preservation of female fertility in female cancer victims is gaining more importance in the light of the excellent survival rates today after treatment for the types of cancer, which are common in women during childhood and fertile age. In this article we discuss the risks of infertility after various cancer treatments and in what patient categories fertility preservation should be discussed. The modes of female fertility preservation used today as clinically established methods or as experimental methods that are used in the human female are reviewed. The advantages and disadvantages of the methods are also identified. Whole ovary cryopreservation has been suggested as a possible future more efficient method of fertility preservation. The research on this method in different animal models is discussed in detail and unsolved questions are identified. To date there has not been any attempt to transplant a cryopreserved whole human ovary but human ovaries have already been cryopreserved for future fertility preservation purposes, when cryobiological and microsurgical techniques have been further refined.