Oct 01, 2013 02:14 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Stanford University School of Medicine researchers were able to develop a method to produce eggs in the ovaries of infertile women, according to a press release.

St. Marianna University School of Medicine, in Kawasaki, Japan, clinicians used the method to conduct an experimental study. The study's participants all had a condition called primary ovarian insufficiency.

27 women in Japan took part and the scientists were able to collect mature eggs for in vitro fertilization from five. Of those five, one gave birth to a healthy baby and another is pregnant.

The researchers have not tested the method, called "in vitro activation" (IVA) on women with other causes of infertility. They hope to test IVA in women with early menopause caused by cancer chemotherapy or radiation, as well as infertile women aged 40 to 45.

IVA requires an ovary, or part of one, to be removed and treated outside the body and then re-implanted in the woman's fallopian tubes. After this procedure, the woman is given hormones to stimulate the growth of the ovaries' follicles, specialized structures in which eggs develop.

"Women with primary ovarian insufficiency enter menopause quite early in life, before they turn 40," said lead author Dr. Aaron Hsueh, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford. "Previous research has suggested that these women still have very tiny, primordial primary and secondary follicles, and that even though they are no longer having menstrual cycles they may still be treatable. Our results obtained with our clinical collaborators in Japan make us hopeful that this is a group of patients who can be helped."

The study was published online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kazuhiro Kawamura, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the St. Marianna University School of Medicine, lead the study and experiment in Japan.

"These patients are eager to find a way to become pregnant with their own eggs," Kawamura said. "I have collaborated with Dr. Hsueh since 2010, working on ways to wake up these dormant follicles. When I was successful in obtaining mature human eggs from large, developed follicles after blocking PTEN activity, I gained confidence that this approach could work clinically."

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit