Chennai: When a 26-year-old woman was diagnosed of mild-grade endometrial adenocarcinoma in 2014, little did she knew she would be able to bear a child despite removal of uterus and left ovary. However, the procedure of transpositioning the right ovary beneath the skin, has helped her bear a baby through surrogacy.
In 2019, she was referred to GG Fertility and Women’s Speciality Hospital where she was under treatment and the surrogate mother delivered the fetus weighing 2.6 kg on 16 February.
Addressing a press conference here Tuesday, hospital’s scientific and assistant director, Dr Priya Selvaraj, said, “The patient undertook therapy under the guidance of Kerala Lakeshore Hospital’s oncologist Dr Chithra Thara Gangadharan, who had removed the uterus and left ovary from the biological mother. But to increase the possibility of having a baby, the doctor had back then saved the right ovary along with blood supply.”
The conventional method of preserving ovaries is placing it above the pelvic brim by laparoscopy, which would also be exposed to radiation when the patient is undergoing cancer therapy. Whereas, through the novel method, the doctor stated, “Considering the accessibility to monitor the ovary, the technique was sought.”
“It was quite a challenge when we had to take the eggs from the ovary as it was positioned beaneath the skin and we were unsure if we would get enough eggs for fertilisation as the patient had cancer. The procedure was successful only in the third attempt which was later implanted in the womb of surrogate mother,” added Dr Priya Selvaraj.
However, it has to be noted that the patient had the complaint of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) which later got manifested into cancer.
“When it is not treated properly during the early stages, chances of developing cancer is more,” she said. Hospital’s associate director, Dr Kamala Selvaraj was also present during the press meet.