What does ovarian tissue cryopreservation offer that other fertility preservation options cannot?

So the advantage of tissue cryopreservation to a young cancer patient is really that it fills out a menu of options. So before we offer[ed] this kind of technology, a young woman, so a child, would have no option. Young girls cannot go through emergency IVF. And so they had really no options.

For the young adult female with cancer, navigating to an IVF program can be very difficult, and in addition they have to wait several weeks to go through hormonal shots in order to develop a set of eggs that can be fertilized. And the third thing is you have to have a sperm donor if you want to create an embryo.

Now, this is the emergency, or rescue, IVF, is mature technology, so it is something that many women would like to opt for if they have the time. But some women have hormonally responsive cancers and some women simply don’t have the time, nor do they want to go through several weeks of hormonal interventions prior to going on to their cancer chemotherapy. So the option for tissue cryopreservation, as well as the information about what the chemotherapy or radiation will specifically do to their fertility, is really information that women can use to make what we call an informed choice. So even though the IVF may be one option, it may not be right for that particular individual. Tissue cryopreservation may be right for an individual who really wants to move on with her chemotherapy. Or in some cases, they may wish just to have the information and then move through the treatment and think about fertility options down the line.