Menopause is the permanent cessation of menstruation resulting in the loss of ovarian follicle development. It is considered to occur when 12 menstrual cycles are missed, and  typically signals the end of a woman’s ability to become pregnant.

Early menopause, iis described as the cessation of ovarian function at or before the age of 45 years. It is estimated that roughly 12.2% of women experience early menopause. As more women look to build their careers before pursuing motherhood, the average age of conceiving a child continues to be pushed back, and for some of these women, however, their hope of becoming pregnant is cut short by the onset of early menopause.

Multiple treatment options have previously been investigated, including standard, controlled ovarian stimulation. Platelet-rich plasma has been used in women with primary ovarian insufficiency, but few pregnancies and live births resulted. With the failure of these somewhat traditional treatments, more novel approaches, such as methods for inducing the growth of ovarian follicles, are being pursued.

North American Menopause Society (NAMS) did a mall-scale pilot study, platelet-rich plasma and gonadotropins were injected into the ovaries of study participants, with some fairly amazing results. 

Twelve early menopausal women with mean age of 44.42 ± 2.84 were enrolled. After treatment, 11 women resumed their menstrual period in 37.1 ± 23.5 days. Their average serum FSH was 70.47 ± 20.92 and 26.22 ± 17.55 IU/L, luteinizing hormone was 34.81 ± 11.86 and 14.3 ± 12.8 IU/L, before and after treatment, respectively. The mid-cycle E2 was 251.1 ± 143.8 pg/mL. Ten oocyte retrievals were carried out among six participants, four of them received controlled ovarian stimulation and another two using natural ovulation cycles. Thirteen mature eggs were retrieved which were then ICSI fertilized to obtain 10 normally fertilized 2PN oocytes. Two participants had cleavage stage embryos transferred of which one achieved clinical pregnancy.

These early results regarding the successful resumption of ovarian function offer hope to women in early menopause who may be able to pursue pregnancy through in vitro fertilization using their own eggs. However , larger studies are needed to confirm the safety and long term risks and benefits of this procedure.

SOURCE: 

Chao Chin Hsu, Isabel Hsu, Leonard Hsu, Yi Jen Chiu, Sonam Dorjee (June 2021). Resumed ovarian function and pregnancy in early menopausal women by whole dimension subcortical ovarian administration of platelet-rich plasma and gonadotropins. The Journal Of The North American Menopause Society. Retrieved from : https://journals.lww.com/menopausejournal/Abstract/2021/06000/Resumed_ovarian_function_and_pregnancy_in_early.10.aspx 

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