An Established Technology Gets a New Application: Reimplantation of Autologous Ovarian Tissue to Treat Menopausal Symptoms

In 1954 and 1956, Deanesly [1] and Green, et al. [2] were one of the first to experiment with the freezing and thawing of animal ovarian tissue. In the first half of the 20th century, the art of tissue cryopreservation was at its infancy with glycerol being the only cryoprotectant available [3]. Glycerol is a poor cryoprotectant and, therefore, early research showed very limited success [4]. Additional cryoprotectants became available during the 1990s leading to successful ovarian tissue cryopreservation, transplantation, and resumption of fertility studies in animals and humans [3,5,6].