Women With Endometrial Cancer Become Mothers Through Uterine Conservation Method

13.02.2013

Hospitals Virgen de las Nieves and San Cecilio of Granada have for the first time in Spain applied uterine conservation method which allowed two women with endometrial cancer become mothers. This innovative procedure only led to 16 documented pregnancies worldwide, including two in Granada.

The doctors "paralyzed" this type of tumor so that patients could become pregnant and become mothers before they proceed to total hysterectomy. Initially, drug treatment with progestogensis is performed for a period of between three and six months, with the aim to "paralyze" the tumor. After verification that the tumor is inactive doctors proceed to the fertilization technique appropriate to achieve pregnancy. In both cases made in Granada, women have undergone in vitro fertilization.

This method is recommended for women under 40 with localized endometrial tumor of low malignancy. This is a rare type of cancer in this age group (only 4 percent of endometrial cancer cases are diagnosed in younger women), explaining unfrequent use of this procedure. In the last five years, only five cases have been diagnosed in women less than 40 years in the Hospital Virgen de las Nieves in Granada, compared to 60 detected per year in women of all ages in this hospital.

One of the two women who have benefited from this technique is Amanda Martinez, 38. She decided to undergo this test because she and her partner were "looking forward to being parents." "As we were passing tests and saw that they were going well, we took further steps, and step by step we came so far," explained the woman, whose baby-girl named Amanda, like her mother, was born December 22.

This conservative treatment is rare: there are 86 documented cases around the world, and only 16 of them have resulted in pregnancy, two in Granada. Assisted Reproduction Unit of Virgen de las Nieves is a reference center in Andalusia for special techniques of assisted reproduction (sperm washing), and for fertility preservation in patients with cancer or degenerative diseases through egg freezing.

As for egg freezing with further embryo transfer, 42 women have benefited from it since its launch in 2009. Sperm washing was used by234 pairs with infectious diseases, resulting in 88 pregnancies.

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