A 24-year-old woman from Dubai is likely the first the world to have a baby after having an ovary frozen before the onset of puberty, the BBC has reported.

Moaza Al Matrooshi's son was delivered at Portland Hospital yesterday.

Her doctor, Sara Matthews, a consultant in gynaecology and fertility, described the event as a huge step forward.

She told the BBC: “We know that ovarian tissue transplantation works for older women, but we've never known if we could take tissue from a child, freeze it and make it work again."

Doctors say the procedure gives hope to many others who risked losing the chance of motherhood as a result of treatment for cancer, blood or immune disorders.

Moaza Al Matrooshi was born with beta thalassaemia and needed chemotherapy, which damages the ovaries, before receiving a bone marrow transplant from her brother at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Prior to treatment, when she was nine years old, she had her right ovary removed in an operation in Leeds, where the tissue was frozen.

Fragments of her ovarian tissue were mixed with cryo-protective agents and slowly reduced in temperature to minus 196C, before being stored under liquid nitrogen.

Last year, surgeons in Denmark transplanted five slivers of the ovarian tissue back into her body - four were stitched on to her failed left ovary and one on to the side of her uterus.

Moaza had been going through the menopause. But after the transplant, her hormone levels began returning to normal, she began ovulating and her fertility was restored.

To maximise the chances of having a child, Moaza and her husband Ahmed underwent IVF treatment.

From the eight eggs that were collected, three embryos were produced, two of which were implanted earlier this year.