An Italian is pregnant with twins with frozen donor eggs 14 years ago and after winning cancer

Even though it was unthinkable years ago, today it is possible for a woman to fulfill her dream of being a mother after suffering from cancer, even if she has not frozen her own eggs.

Giovanna is a 41 year old Italian woman who got get pregnant with twins with donated eggs after winning breast cancer. The frozen and vitrified oocytes 14 years ago were successfully implanted. “It is a special case that for us is synonymous with progress, success and hope,” she stressed. Eleonora Porcudoctor specialized in assisted reproduction at the Sant’Orsola Polyclinic in Bologna, where the treatment was carried out.

It is the first time that the fertility of cryopreserved and vitrified oocytes has been documented for such a long period.

Being a mother after breast cancer with donated eggs

Egg cryopreservation is a technique that keeps the eggs inside liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196 degrees, making them remain intact and fertile for a long time.

Many women use this technique to store their eggs for later use. But there are also those who resort to egg donation, a technique in which the oocytes of an anonymous donor are used instead of the oocytes of the same patient. In this way, the donated egg is fertilized by the partner’s sperm (or sperm from the donor) and implanted in the patient’s uterus.

The doctor added that this is a hope especially for cancer patients who “face difficult and often very long treatments, and can count on a strong egg bank and an effective protocol: therefore they have the expectation of a pregnancy at the end. of treatment, regardless of age “.