A 38-year-old woman from London has given birth to the world’s first baby conceived after a full ovary transplant.

The patient, who received an ovary donated by her identical twin sister, had a healthy daughter weighing 7lb 15oz today, delivered by Caesarean section.

The birth is the ninth reported worldwide after ovarian tissue was transplanted from one sister to another, but the first in which an entire ovary was used.

The woman, who lives in London but has German nationality, became infertile at the age of 15 when she suffered premature ovarian failure and went through the menopause. Her identical twin, however, remains fertile and agreed to donate an ovary to her sister.

The transplant was conducted last year in the United States by Sherman Silber, of the Infertility Centre of St Louis in Missouri, who has pioneered the delicate microsurgical procedure.

Dr Silber said that as the donor twin lives in Vancouver, Canada, the sisters had not seen each other for four years before the operation. “They were reunited in St Louis,” he told the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in San Francisco. “It has been unbelievably exciting.”

The success of the full transplant could create fresh reproductive options for cancer patients who wish to preserve their fertility during treatment that might leave them sterile. It could allow such women to have an ovary removed and frozen before they begin chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which could then be re-attached when she is given the all-clear.

It might technically be possible for healthy women to preserve their fertility in the same manner, so they can try to start a family in their 40s or later, though other options such as freezing eggs and slices of ovarian tissue are likely to be more popular for this purpose.

Transplants from woman to woman are generally possible at the moment between identical twins, as they share all their DNA. This means organs can be transplanted between the two without danger of rejection by the body’s immune system, or immuno-suppressant drugs.

The first birth from transplanted ovary tissue took place in 2005, to Stephanie Yarber, an American woman, whose donor was her identical twin sister, Melanie Morgan.

Only one ovarian transplant has so far been reported between ordinary sisters who are not identical twins, in Belgium in 2007. Teresa Alvaro, who had an early menopause, started to menstruate again after receiving grafts of ovary tissue donated by her sister, Sandra.

Dr Silber said the full ovary transplant is likely to last longer than strips of ovarian tissue, perhaps for ten years rather than three. The first patient had the operation chiefly to restore her ovarian function and menstrual cycles, as she did not want to take hormone replacement therapy. She then became pregnant by a spontaneous conception.

Scientists caution that ovarian transplants from women to women are unlikely to benefit more than a few patients, mostly identical twins. For the operation to work, it is necessary to have a donor who is a precise tissue match. And as giving up ovarian tissue involves health and fertility risks to the donor, only women who have had their children, or do not want any, would be suitable candidates. Egg donation and other forms of fertility treatment are likely to remain the therapy of choice.

Dr Silber predicted that some women would want to use the technology to have ovaries stored and frozen to postpone motherhood for social reasons. He said: "We are in the midst of an infertility epidemic which has become an enormous public problem."

Young women could have an ovary frozen in their 20s, Dr Silber said. "They then have a young ovary that can be transplanted back at any time and extend fertility."

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