--- title: Ovarian Transplants Help Women Have Children After Cancer description: An experimental procedure using women's ovarian tissue helps women who survive cancer have babies, a new study shows canonical: https://time.com/4064934/ovarian-tissue-transplants/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-07T18:13:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:53.086Z article:section: Health og:title: Ovarian Tissue Transplants Help Women Have Children After Cancer, Study Shows og:description: A new procedure shows promise og:url: https://time.com/4064934/ovarian-tissue-transplants/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ovarian Tissue Transplants Help Women Have Children After Cancer, Study Shows twitter:description: A new procedure shows promise twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Ovarian Tissue Transplants Help Women Have Children After Cancer, Study Shows > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=a25fb38a-4cd9-4089-ac07-9081f9e84132&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Angelina Jolie Had Her Ovaries Removed Due To Cancer Risk [Watch (HLS stream): Angelina Jolie Had Her Ovaries Removed Due To Cancer Risk](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PX01UmjB.m3u8) (1:28)  _Published 2015-03-24. Angelina Jolie opens up about having her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in an essay in The New York Times._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 7, 2015 6:13 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 7, 2015 6:13 PM UTC An experimental procedure in which women who survive cancer receive transplants of their own ovarian tissue has helped some women have babies, a [new study](http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/10/03/humrep.dev230.full) shows. The study is the largest to be done on this procedure so far. The Denmark study, published in the journal _Human Reproduction_, focused on women who had one ovary removed and frozen when they found out that they had cancer. After receiving treatment and recovering from cancer, doctors transplanted the preserved ovarian tissue onto the women’s remaining ovary, [the Associated Press reports](http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article%5F2015-10-06-EU-MED--Ovary%20Transplants/id-39fb1303dac0408db1ac1a6bc40e5125). The study looked at 41 women with cancer who had the procedure between 2003 and 2014\. The results showed that among the 32 women who wanted to get pregnant, 10 did conceive and gave birth. The findings suggest the procedure could help 1 in 3 women successfully have a baby. According to the AP, over 36 babies have been born after ovarian transplants including 14 in Denmark. “Freezing ovarian tissue is now gaining ground as a valid method for fertility restoration and for providing ovarian activity with cycling levels of sex hormones for several years,” the study authors conclude. “The level of safety appears to be high, with no relapse due to transplantation of ovarian tissue recorded to date.” **Read more:**[_Exclusive: Meet the World’s First Baby Born With an Assist from Stem Cells_](http://time.com/3849127/baby-stem-cells-augment-ivf/) ## Transcript [00:00] Actress Angelina Jolie is taking even more preventative [00:03] measures against developing certain types of cancer [00:05] she has a family history of. The 39 year old revealed in [00:08] a New York Times essay she's had her ovaries and [00:11] fallopian tubes removed. This after she underwent a [00:14] preventive mastectomy in 2013. Two years ago, the [00:17] star revealed she carries a gene mutation called [00:20] BRCA1. Which put her at an 87 % risk of breast cancer [00:23] and a 50 % risk of ovarian cancer, according to her [00:26] doctor's estimates. In her newest essay, Jolie revealed [00:29] she was planning to have the surgery to remove her [00:31] ovaries and Fallopian tubes for a while now. But had to [00:34] wrap her brain around the consequences. It is a less [00:37] complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects [00:40] are more severe. It puts a woman into forced [00:43] menopause. So I was readying myself physically and [00:46] emotionally, discussing options with doctors, [00:49] researching alternative medicine, and mapping my [00:51] hormones for estrogen or progesterone replacement, [00:54] Jolie wrote. She planned to put the surgery off for even [00:56] longer, until a yearly cancer screening test came back [00:59] showing some inflammatory markers, a potential sign [01:02] of ovarian cancer. Jolie's mother died from that same [01:05] type of cancer in 2007. Jolie's candidness about both [01:09] preventative surgeries has had quite the impact on [01:11] women getting cancer screenings. In 2014 the BBC [01:14] reported a study discovered the number of referrals to [01:17] breast cancer clinics to get genetic testing completed, [01:20] more than doubled from the previous year. The [01:23] researches attributed the increase to what call the [01:26] Angelina Jolie effect. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4064934/ovarian-tissue-transplants/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4064934/ovarian-tissue-transplants/"},"headline":"Ovarian Tissue Transplants Help Women Have Children After Cancer, Study Shows","datePublished":"2015-10-07T18:13:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:04:53.086Z","description":"A new procedure shows promise","url":"https://time.com/4064934/ovarian-tissue-transplants/","keywords":["Research","Pregnancy","Cancer","baby","transplant"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4064934/ovarian-tissue-transplants/","name":"Ovarian Tissue Transplants Help Women Have Children After Cancer, Study Shows"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Angelina Jolie Had Her Ovaries Removed Due To Cancer Risk","description":"Angelina Jolie opens up about having her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in an essay in The New York Times.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PX01UmjB/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-03-24T13:55:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PX01UmjB.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4064934/ovarian-tissue-transplants/","duration":"PT1M28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4064934/ovarian-tissue-transplants/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```