By: Leah Bressler -
Dr. Gracia, Professor, Practicing REI and Director of Fertility Preservation at UPenn, kicked off our afternoon session with a comprehensive review of ovarian tissue cryopreservation. She first reviewed indications for ovarian cryopreservation, which is an experimental option for patients who cannot pursue established methods such as prepubertal patients, patients with hormone-sensitive malignancies and patients with aggressive malignancies requiring immediate gonadotoxic treatment. Dr. Gracia reviewed how providers can coordinate procedures to obtain ovarian cortical tissue with other necessary procedures, such as port placement, bone marrow resection of tumor resection. She then reviewed the mixed literature on slow freeze vs. vitrification for cryopreservation and shared results from her lab, highlighting the need for additional investigation using healthy ovarian tissue that is adequately prepared and preserved with a standardized preparation of cryoprotectants.