Expected Outcomes and Quality Control: Fertility Preservation in Pre-pubertal Girls

With survival rates from childhood cancer improving, the importance of ensuring improved quality, as well as quantity, of life is increasingly a priority. The potential loss of fertility is an important consideration for patients and their parents, and the field of fertility preservation provides hope to this cohort. Whilst post-pubertal females have the options of embryo, oocyte, or ovarian tissue cryopreservation, ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) remains the only feasible cryopreservation treatment for pre-pubertal girls. This option can also be extended to those pre-pubertal girls who are at risk of premature ovarian insufficiency for non-malignant and non-iatrogenic reasons, for example, genetic disorders such as Turner syndrome. A fertility risk assessment is essential in order that only appropriate patients are offered fertility preservation. Given it is a relatively new medical advancement, long-term data in pre-pubertal girls is limited, but early case reports demonstrate promise in regard pubertal induction and pregnancy outcomes.