Cancer survivor left infertile after treatment gives birth to 'miracle' baby girl

For Christmas last year Jodie Wyers gave her parents a picture book, an ultrasound photo slipped in behind the front cover.

After cancer treatment had left her infertile, Jodie was finally pregnant with her ‘miracle’ baby.

‘Now we have a family function and it’s like pass the parcel, everyone wants to hold this miracle baby that shouldn’t really be here but is,’ Jodie, 29, told Daily Mail Australia.

When Jodie was 23 years she was diagnosed with Follicular Lymphoma.

The diagnosis was potentially life-threatening and required months of ‘severe and intense’ treatment.

Jodie and her husband Aden, 30, both teachers from Traralgon in country Victoria, had been together for four years when they were told about Jodie’s condition.

The couple had planned to have children so before they started chemotherapy they underwent a quick round of IVF which didn't produce any eggs which could have been frozen.

‘I thought that’s it, that was our only hope,’ Jodie told Daily Mail Australia.

But in May this year, Jodie made history as the second woman in the world give birth after her ovarian tissue was grafted into her abdominal and pelvic walls.

Baby Evie's birth was announced on Wednesday at the annual scientific meeting of the Fertility Society of Australia in Canberra.

Associate Professor Kate Stern, Head of Fertility Preservation at Melbourne IVF and the Royal Women's Hospital, said the innovative technology was first used in 2013 when a Melbourne woman had twins, seven years after her ovaries were removed during cancer treatment. 

Prof Stern told them of an experimental technique involving removing ovarian tissue which is then frozen and later stimulated to produce eggs fertilised through IVF.

Pregnancies have occurred when the ovarian tissue is later grafted back into the same position, but Jodie's followed the tissue being grafted into the abdominal and pelvic walls.

It took just 10 months and five IVF cycles for Jodie and Aden to fall pregnant with Evie.

The pregnancy was without complication, and Jodie waited until she was 14 weeks along to tell her family on Christmas Day.

‘There was tears all round, it was really emotional,’ Jodie said.

Evie was born six weeks premature on May 16.

‘She’s changed our lives completely,’ Jodi said, ‘you look at her and you just have to smile.’

Prof Stern said Jodie’s successful pregnancy confirmed that ovarian tissue grafting provided a realistic opportunity for women to have a baby after being treated for cancer that left them infertile either due to the surgical removal of reproductive organs or the toxic effects of therapy.

She said while adult women may sometimes have the opportunity to freeze eggs prior to cancer treatment for fertility preservation, ovarian tissue is the only option for pre-pubertal girl.

For Jodie to fall pregnant again, she would have to go through the IVF process for a second time.

The supply of tissue she had frozen in storage was used during Evie’s conception, so she can only rely on the tissue that has already been grafted into her abdominal and pelvic walls.

‘We don’t know what the life expectancy of the tissue is so we’ll keep going until the tissue stops being viable and until we run out of money,’ Jodie said.

‘If I did fall pregnant again, it would be another normal pregnancy afterwards.’ 

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