Procedure Protects Ovaries of Cancer Patients

"It takes three months before the eggs start growing," he told ABC News. "Then you will start feeling them like little lumps underneath the skin. At that point it starts producing hormones, such as estrogen hormones, and, in theory, the woman is no longer in menopause."

In one patient earlier this year, doctors were able to harvest the eggs, fertilize them and create an embryo. The goal now is to achieve an actual pregnancy.

"There will be more and more patients coming back to have this procedure done," he said, "and as we accumulate experience, eventually we will get a pregnancy."

Eventually, it might allow healthy women to "bank" their ovaries for use later in life.

"If you have a 30-year-old woman who had her ovary frozen and then comes back 10 years later, her body might be 40 years old but the ovarian tissue is still 30 years old, and those eggs are still 30 years old," Oktay said.

Dr. Marion Danewood, the president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said the procedure might eventually allow women to expand their childbearing years.

"I can see that happening down the road because as these techniques are refined and as we establish the safety and success rates with them, women will want to put off childbearing and save the eggs they had when they were age 25, at their peak fertility," Danewood told ABC News.

Ann Dauer should know within the next year whether her transplanted ovary will result in a pregnancy.