A four-year-old girl has had one of her ovaries frozen after treatment for a rare form of leukaemia meant she risked becoming infertile. Rose Sherlock, four, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in January 2021 after first showing symptoms of bruising four months previously.
Her mum, Catherine, revealed that when doctors eventually diagnosed the leukaemia via a blood test, the aggressive chemotherapy treatment meant a risk of damaging the eggs in the ovaries. That can means that none are left after treatment and, if this happens, patients can no longer get pregnant and might have early symptoms of the menopause.
One of Rose's ovaries was removed and is being stored in a freezer in Oxford, thanks to the Oxford NHS Trust Future Fertility Programme. Catherine, 36, from Sutton, London, told MyLondon that having to digest the news that her first-born child had cancer, having to make decisions about her fertility was "another huge blow".
