A healthy baby boy was recently born to 39-year-old Irini Kokka, who had undergone ovarian tissue transplantation.
On Saturday, June 8, Irini Kokka gave birth to the baby boy, weighing 3 kg and 20 grams, by caesarean section.
“We made history for Greece. The first child from transplantation is a fact,” her doctor and secretary general of the Hellenic Society of Reproductive Medicine, Konstantinos Pantos, who grew up and studied in Melbourne, told Neos Kosmos.
Ms Kokka was diagnosed with haematological cancer, Hodgkins lymphoma 16 years ago, and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
In 2013, the haematological cancer recurred, only this time, before undergoing the prescribed treatment protocols to combat it, she opted for ovarian tissue cryopreservation in order to protect and preserve her fertility.
In 2021 after her treatment she returned for a transplant of her cryopreserved ovarian cortex into her now non-functioning ovaries to restore her fertility.
The complex surgery was performed at the Genesis Athens Clinic by the clinic’s specialised doctors and clinical embryologists, together with honourable and substantial presence of a team of specialised doctors from Oslo University Hospital in Norway, led by Professor and Director of the Department of Reproductive Medicine, Peter Zoltan Fedorcsak and the Greek clinical embryologist, Director of the IVF Laboratory Maria Biba.
Another pioneering aspect of intricate procedure was that it was broadcast live online from the operating room of the Genesis Athens Clinic to 13 public hospitals in the country so that other Greek doctors could follow the whole procedure.
After a year and a half of the successful procedure and having collected eggs fertilised with her husband’s sperm, Kokka performed embryo transfer of two embryos at blastocyst stage on October 5, 2023.
Her doctor and secretary general of the Hellenic Society of Reproductive Medicine, Konstantinos Pantos, was proud of the achievement.
“For the first time in Greek history, pregnancy and birth of a healthy child was achieved after ovarian tissue transplantation. It is the first time in history that a woman has been able to have a successful pregnancy in Greece. 210 children have been born internationally using this method since the first child was born in 2004, with a birth rate of 21%, with similar pregnancy rates both from natural conception and after IVF,” Pantos said.
“My biggest dream came true. I fought and with the help of the medical team I was able to win the greatest gift in my life, my baby boy. I would like to tell all women who are going through something similar to my case that it is worth the effort,” said Ms Kokka.
Irini Kokka’s is now the first woman in Greece to give birth to a healthy baby boy after undergoing an ovarian tissue transplant following treatments for the cancer she was diagnosed with.
“I was diagnosed with cancer, the first time it wasn’t so aggressive. The second time, I was diagnosed again at 4 years and it was very aggressive. I had 24-hour chemo treatments, consecutive, it was a very difficult time then. The doctors told me that we had to do something before we started the chemo treatments because it would destroy my ovaries, which it did,” she said.
“I went to Mr Pando and we started the freezing process. For nine whole years I had nothing, not even my period. When we did the surgery, in 6 months everything came back,” she added, revealing that she is positive for a second pregnancy.
“Everything went well”
For his part, the gynaecologist who performed the procedure, Konstantinos Pantos, noted: “It is very important for women who have a malignancy to be able to preserve their fertility by freezing either eggs or ovarian tissue. In this case, she did not have the time to wait to freeze eggs because this also needs some treatment to stimulate the ovaries. We froze ovarian tissue, it’s a one day procedure with laparoscopy. Then she continues the treatments and when she is well healed from her disease, she comes back for the transplant.”
“This particular woman found out about the malignancy in 2009, had the necessary treatment, but the malignancy came back in 2013 and then the doctors told her that she would lose her ovarian function. She went ahead, came in, had ovarian tissue frozen, followed the treatment and in 2021 when she came back for the transplant, her ovaries were not functioning. We transplanted ovarian tissue, slowly her ovarian function came back, we harvested her eggs one by one and once we harvested two good embryos I did an embryo transfer and it went well,” Dr Pantos said.
