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At the Portland Hospital in London, on December 13, 2016, 24-year-old Moaza al Matrooshi gave birth to her first son, Rashid. She is the first person in the world to have given birth to a biological child after having her ovarian tissue harvested and preserved from before puberty.
When Al Matrooshi was only nine years old, she was diagnosed with beta thalassaemia, a blood disorder that limited her ability to carry blood through her body. She had to receive a bone marrow transplant from her brother for treatment, as well as undergo chemotherapy.
Doctors warned Al Matrooshi and her family that chemotherapy could render her infertile – so Al Matrooshi’s mother conducted research and found a way to have her daughter’s right ovary removed and frozen to preserve for the future.
After the ovary removal, Al Matrooshi made a full recovery – with some complications. She married her husband, Ahmed, when she was 20 years old, but when the two tried to have children together, they were unable to conceive naturally.
Al Matrooshi began hormone therapy, but to little success. “I went home without anything and felt so bad,” she explained.
But that was when her gynecologist contacted her, saying that she’d found a surgical team who was willing to transplant her frozen ovary tissues back into her body, in hopes of allowing her to conceive and have a child.
Sara Matthews, Al Matrooshi’s gynecologist, knew, “It’s a very straightforward procedure.” The only trouble with finding a team was due to the amount of time Al Matrooshi’s ovary had been in storage: 13 years.
Once this team was assembled, however, Al Matrooshi was able to have her ovary transplanted back into her body, bit by bit, to allow her body to heal naturally. Three months after this process was completed, Matthews was able to harvest three eggs from Al Matrooshi’s restored ovary and, through IVF, allow her to conceive a child with her husband.
Doctors have confirmed that Rashid al Matrooshi, Moaza and Ahmed’s son from this experimental procedure, is healthy and well – as is mother Moaza.
As for Al Matrooshi, she said, "I feel so happy to have my baby in my hands now. We waited many years to see this."
