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Photograph courtesy of St. Luke's Hospital
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Gazing at the new mother and her son, you’d never know that not long ago, Amy Tucker had been menopausal for a decade. Thirteen years ago, Amy began battling advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and the intense treatments required would leave the 19-year-old infertile. As part of an experimental fertility preservation procedure, Dr. Sherman Silber, director of the Infertility Center of St. Louis at St. Luke’s Hospital, removed and froze some of her ovarian tissue early in her diagnosis. Today, Amy is married and cancer free, and on May 27 she gave birth to Grant Patrick Tucker.
“She started menstruating and having periods,” explains Silber. “No in vitro fertilization, no drugs. She just had a normal ovary now, and she got pregnant naturally.”
As the first cancer survivor in the United States to give birth to a baby as a result of ovary freezing and transplantation, Amy and Grant’s story offers hope to young cancer patients who have lost their ability to conceive. Now, at age 32, Amy’s properly functioning ovary acts just as it would have in her teenage years. “We thawed the tissue, and it was brand new,” says Silber. “It was just like it was when she was 19 years old.” Consequently, Amy’s biological clock won’t tick nearly as fast as her peers. While other women in their early 30s have lost the high fertility of their youth, Amy’s ovary remains in its prime. Silber estimates she won’t start her second round of menopause until her 60s or 70s.
In the last 13 years, many women struggling with cancer have frozen their reproductive organs, in hope that one day they’d be able to use their own ovaries and eggs to conceive. Grant is the first baby to be born from a once frozen ovary of a cancer survivor in the United States, and Silber believes many will follow. “I think we’ve come to the point where this should be considered established treatment rather than experimental,” he says.
One drawback—insurance companies aren’t eager to pay the bills. Until then, the doctor and his team are performing the $8,000 procedure at no cost to the patient. “We’ve made a promise to everyone, a very open promise, that we won’t charge for this,” he explains. “Cancer patients shouldn’t have to face financial issues, because they have to make quick decisions to have the ovary frozen.”
