A 37-year-old woman diagnosed with premature menopause had a baby boy earlier this month from an egg grown through the administration of a hormonal agent, her doctors said Saturday.
St. Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, stirred the formation of ovarian follicles by administering the hormonal agent to pick up eggs from it, and grew them using culture fluid for external fertilization.
The fertile eggs were then placed in the woman's uterus. Although she was diagnosed as being in premature menopause in her 20s, she eventually gave birth to the 2.9-kg baby.
Bumpei Ishizuka, a professor at the medical school, said her delivery "shows the effectiveness of our method."
The treatment technique will be formally announced at a meeting of the Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Sunday. It is reported that around 1 percent of women under 40 develop early menopause, which atrophies the ovaries and prevents the formation of ovarian follicles.
At the medical school, some 140 women have undergone the treatment since last November. Of them, 30 have successfully formed ovarian follicles and, of the 30, six have produced fertile eggs, according to the university.