Cancer is one major reason that women face fertility issues. Women suffering from ovarian cancer, abdominal cancer and even other types of cancer face an increased risk of infertility due to both the cancer and the treatments for the cancer. As a result, researchers have been interested in finding a way to improve the options out there for women who face infertility because of cancer. Researchers at Missouri University may be able to break ground in this area of infertility study due to the fact that they recently received a grant of over one million dollars specifically for the purpose of research in this area.
The area of focus that the grant money will be used for is improving cryopreservation. Essentially, cancer treatments (and sometimes the cancer itself) often cause damage to the ovarian tissue and other reproductive areas. The goal is to preserve these tissues before treatment can damage them using improved cryopreservation techniques. Cryopreservation is currently an experimental science which has seen only moderate success. The MU researchers will study such factors as new cryoprotectants and different cooling rates to try to come up with a solution to this problem.
