This is a breakthrough that could give hope to other women with infertility problems. A 30 year old woman from Japan gave birth to healthy baby boy. She was infertile.

The experimental ovary treatment was published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new mother was initially diagnosed with primary ovarian insufficiency, which is also known as premature menopause. That is a common form of infertility and it appears in 1% of women of childbearing age. While the cause is unknown, it is a condition where the ovary has trouble producing eggs.

Women with POI have a 5-10% chance of conceiving, and the standard treatment for this is to use donor's eggs.

Dr. Kazuhiro Kawamura of the St. Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Japan, along with colleagues, removed the hopeful mother's ovaries and cut them into strips, which were then frozen in the experimental surgery.

They thawed and cut them into tiny cubes to stimulate maturation of the follicles and they were then treated with drugs to stimulate their development. Later, they were transplanted under the surface of the woman's fallopian tubes.

Six months later, the mother showed signs of follicle maturation, and was able to produce viable eggs that were fertilized with her husband's sperm. The embryo was then transplanted.

The experimental procedure was performed on 27 patients, of which only five were able to produce eggs. Of those, one went on to have a miscarriage, one failed to get pregnant, while the other two have not yet attempted pregnancy.

The CBC reports though, that experts caution that the results are very preliminary:
Lots of promise indeed. Read the entire study in PNAS: “Hippo signaling disruption and Akt stimulation of ovarian follicles for infertility treatment.”