Saccording to a press release from Dr Baha Benamar, director of an in vitro fertilization laboratory in Rabat, “on September 25, 2024, a first patient was able to successfully benefit from the cryopreservation of her ovarian cortex after ovarian sampling taken in Casablanca and transported to Rabat”.
“A certain number of pathologies require treatments which can be toxic to the reproductive organs and be responsible for a reduction in fertility or sterility”, recalls Dr. Benamar in the press release. Cancer is at the top of these pathologies.
The press release specifies that “current treatments cure more than 80% at five years and 70% in the long term, but the side effects can be formidable, and leave them sterile.”. This is particularly true in cases of high-dose chemotherapy or radiotherapy targeting the ovarian or testicular regions.
Faced with this challenge, cryopreservation of the ovarian cortex presents several major advantages. Dr Benamar emphasizes that this technique “can be done without delay when treatment must be started quickly” and “can be done even if chemotherapy treatment is started”. Furthermore, it constitutes “the only possibility of preserving fertility in prepubescent little girls”.
It is important to note that this new technique falls within a precise legal framework. The press release recalls that Law No. 47-14 of April 4, 2019 stipulates that “any person who undergoes treatment that may affect their ability to procreate or is preparing to undergo it or whose fertility risks being prematurely impaired, may resort to conservation of its gametes or germinal tissues for their subsequent use in the context of medically assisted procreation”.
