Human Reproduction Update, Vol.7, No.6 pp.603-610, 2001
© European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology 2001; all rights reserved
Turner’s syndrome and fertility: current status and possible putative prospects
1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Campus, Petah Tikva, Israel
To whom correspondence should be addressed at: R. Abir, IVF Research Laboratory, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Campus, Petah Tikva 49100, Israel. e-mail: ronitabir{at}hotmail.com
Abstract
Women with Turner’s syndrome should be carefully followed throughout life. Growth hormone therapy should be started at age 2–5 years. Hormone replacement therapy for the development of normal female sexual characteristics should be started at age 12–15 years and continued for the long term to prevent coronary artery disease and osteoporosis. Most women with Turner’s syndrome have ovarian dysgenesis; therefore, they are usually infertile, and in very rare cases have spontaneous menses followed by early menopause. Only 2% of the women have natural pregnancies, with high rates of miscarriages, stillbirths and malformed babies. Their pregnancy rate in oocyte donation programmes is 24–47%, but even these pregnancies have a high rate of miscarriage, probably due to uterine factors. A possible future prospect is cryopreservation of ovarian tissue containing immature follicles before the onset of early menopause, but methods of replantation and in-vitro maturation still need to be developed. Should these autologous oocytes indeed be used in the future, affected women would need to undergo genetic counselling before conception, followed by prenatal assessment.
Key words: cryopreservation of ovarian tissue / hormone replacement therapy / natural pregnancies / oocyte donation / Turner’s syndrome
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