Question: How do you think your research will affect other people?

Vicki Onions answered on 17 Jun 2010:

Hi twilight
My research would benefit those girls and women who might lose their ovarian function due to surgery or medical treatments that can harm the ovary (e.g. chemo or radiotherapy). The theory behind my work is that if you could take out the ovary or pieces of the ovarian tissue which contain the eggs, and freeze it out of harms way while the woman undergoes her treatment, then you could thaw it out again and reimplant it into the woman when she is better and wants to have children and hopefully the ovary would function again to produce an egg every month and she may be able to have a child.
The other way it could affect people is that some people say you could use ovarian freezing to delay the menopause, or allow you to have children later. Say if you took some ovarian tissue when you were in your 20’s and froze it away, when you went through the menopause in, say your 50’s, you could put that tissue back in (that would be suspended in animation in its 20’s!) and you would continue to produce eggs and be fertile. This one is hotly debated though and many people disagree with its use for this purpose – what do you think?