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🇸🇪 Sweden /Health & Science

New Swedish treatment offers hope to women unable to conceive

From Dagens Nyheter · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • A Swedish pilot study used the immune-suppressing drug rituximab before IVF for women whose premature ovarian insufficiency resulted from an autoimmune disease.
  • Amanda Areblad, one of the participants, became a mother after doctors had told her that egg donation or adoption were her alternatives.
  • Researchers and an outside expert called the results promising but stressed that the small study requires larger trials.

At 29, Amanda Areblad was told that her ovaries had stopped working too early for her to conceive naturally. Her remaining options appeared to be egg donation or adoption. Today, after taking part in a Swedish pilot study, she is the mother of Wilhelm.

The thought of egg donation was difficult. I was afraid that the child would develop a stronger bond with his father and that I would be left out.

· Amanda ArebladShe described her feelings after doctors presented egg donation and adoption as her alternatives.

Areblad and her husband, Lukas, sought medical help when she did not become pregnant. Doctors diagnosed premature ovarian insufficiency, or POI, a condition in which the ovaries stop functioning before the age of 40. Almost 3% of women develop POI, which can result from autoimmune disease or genetic factors.

The condition can leave egg follicles in the ovaries, but inflammation may prevent them from developing. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet wanted to test whether suppressing that inflammation could help the eggs mature and then be used in IVF. They chose rituximab, a drug long used against autoimmune diseases and cancer, but not previously for infertility.

POI can have a major impact on fertility. Some women are not aware of that risk until they want to have children.

· Angelica Lindén HirschbergThe Karolinska Institutet professor explained the fertility impact of premature ovarian insufficiency.

Twelve Swedish women aged 18 to 35 took part. All had autoimmune-related POI, and 10 completed the study, which appeared in New England Journal of Medicine Evidence. Areblad initially felt skeptical, but accepted the treatment because she saw it as her only chance to have a child.

Our research group wanted to investigate whether it is possible to stimulate the eggs so that they mature by reducing inflammation, and then use them in IVF.

· Angelica Lindén HirschbergShe explained the reasoning behind the pilot study.

Mats Hammar, professor emeritus of gynecology and obstetrics at Linköping University, described the approach as innovative and the outcome as promising. He also cautioned that the study was small and its findings must be tested on a larger scale.

There is no effective treatment for these women. The researchers are testing a new and very clever idea: suppressing the immune system, and the result is promising.

· Mats HammarThe Linköping University professor assessed the study while warning that larger trials are needed.
About this summary

Originally published by Dagens Nyheter in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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