London: A Danish woman who was left
infertile by cancer has become the first in the world to give
birth to a `miracle` second baby.
Stinne Bergholdt of Odense in Denmark has kept her tiny
strips of ovarian tissue in a frozen state in a laboratory
before undergoing gruelling treatment for bone cancer in 2004.
After beating the disease, some of the pieces were
grafted back into her body and with the help of fertility
drugs she gave birth to a baby girl, Aviaja, in 2007.
She again fell pregnant naturally and has now given birth
to her second daughter, Lucca, becoming the world`s first
woman to have two babies following the complex transplant, the
Daily Mail reported.
Bergholdt`s doctor, Prof Claus Yding Andersen of the
University of Copenhagen, said: "This showed that the original
transplanted ovarian strips had continued to work for more
than four years and that Mrs Bergholdt still has the capacity
to conceive and give birth to healthy children."
Bergholdt, 32, gave birth for the second time in
September 2008, but the success has only just been made
public.
"When I found out I was pregnant for the first time I was
of course very happy and excited - but also very afraid and
sceptical," Bergholdt was quoted as saying.
"My cancer had been diagnosed very late ... so I also
wondered if it was really true that I was completely recovered
from it. The second time we hadn`t been working on it - we
thought we needed assistance like the first time," Bergholdt
said.
"We had an appointment at the fertility outpatient clinic
to talk about the possibility of a second baby, but it turned
out that I was already pregnant - naturally. It was indeed a
miracle," she added.
According to journal Human Reproduction, the technique
applied in Bergholdt`s case, may keep eggs fresh for up to 40
years.
But medical experts strongly warned against women using
the procedure to put off the menopause indefinitely.
Dr Allan Pacey, a University of Sheffield fertility
expert, said: "No one in their right mind would do that. It`s
too dangerous and too involved."
But he predicted that the technique would play a bigger
and bigger role in helping women undergoing cancer therapy
have a family.
PTI