A Durban woman is the first South African to successfully conceive using a new reproductive procedure, using a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection to rejuvenate her ovaries.
According to a Post report, Ashlesha Raghubir, 35, and her husband, Arun, 41, struggled with infertility for nine years.
Raghubir, an administrator with a medical group, had previously consulted three gynaecologists and a fertility doctor. “I was told I was not ovulating properly and that my only options were to either get an egg donor or adopt. This was devastating to me.”
She said she was referred to Dr Sagie Naidu, the clinical director of the Durban Fertility Clinic, at St Augustine’s Hospital. and had been placed on a three-month waiting list.
Raghubir said in the report that she experienced hot flushes, fatigue and absence of menstruation, and after a few tests, Naidu told her she had premature menopause from an undetermined cause. He conducted a new reproductive procedure, using a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection to rejuvenate her ovaries and she conceived within three months.
The report says Raghubir delivered her 3.42kg healthy baby boy on 30 April.
Naidu said in the report: “This is a new intervention, since late 2017, in reproductive medicine. We have done PRP on a few patients already. This is the first case of a successful pregnancy in South Africa.
“It is a relatively safe and simple procedure, using the patient’s own platelets. There is no tissue rejection,” explained Naidu.
He said the birth was an important breakthrough in South African medicine and provided renewed hope for women who underwent premature ovarian failure.
Naidu said in the report that premature menopause, medically known as premature ovarian failure, was a loss of normal function before the age of 40. It led to infertility and hypo-estrogenism. “This occurs in less than 1% of women. For the most part, women with this problem are unresponsive to any normal approach to try to help their fertility and their only hope of falling pregnant is by egg donation. Recently, some new approaches have become available.
According to the report, he said the safety concerns in using PRP procedure were minimal. “This is a simple and effective procedure, using the patient’s own blood which, when injected into her ovaries, regenerates her ovarian function.”.
[link url="https://www.iol.co.za/thepost/durban-woman-diagnosed-with-premature-menopause-gives-birth-to-baby-boy-23332864"]Post report[/link]