Fertility hope for young women following ovarian radiation

Researchers from Scotland have created a model to accurately predict for how long a woman treated with ovarian radiation can still become pregnant.

The researchers have calculated an effective sterilizing dose (ESD) of radiation for women aged 0 to 50 years. They determined that the ESD, or the dose of fractionated radiotherapy (Gy) at which premature ovarian failure occurs immediately after treatment in 97.5% of women, decreases with increasing age at treatment, so that ESD at birth is 20.3 Gy, at 10 years is 18.4 Gy, at 20 years is 16.5 Gy, and at 30 years is 14.3 Gy.

Using these calculations, they were able to determine, for example, that a 10-year-old girl receiving 3 Gy ovarian radiation has a mean of about 27 years before ovarian failure, a 20-year-old woman receiving 6 Gy has a mean of about 11 years until sterility, and a 30-year-old woman receiving 9 Gy has a mean time till ovarian failure of about 3 years.