title: Forever young? The ethical challenges of using ovarian tissue transplants to treat menopause.
abstract: Life expectancy statistics predict that in a couple of decades women will enjoy a mean life of 90 years. Assuming a median age for the onset of menopause of 51, women will spend about 40 years in menopause. Harvesting and freezing ovarian cortical tissue at a younger age to permit future transplantation for postponing menopause and its sequelae could become a possible option. However, both medical and ethical issues need to be addressed before this can be offered as a treatment for menopause.
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Medicine, Yale Fertility Center and Yale Center for Bioethics, New Haven, CT, USA. Electronic address: pasquale.patrizio@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Patrizio
authors.affiliation: NYU Langone Medical Center, Division of Medical Ethics, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Arthur L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Caplan
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000166:cytology*
keywords: ethics; menopause; ovarian transplants