Following the birth of a healthy baby to a woman who received an ovarian tissue transplant from her identical twin, more infertile women are likely to request the procedure.

It was the sister who donated the ovarian tissue that made Yarber fertile.

"It's a wonderful thing," Morgan said Tuesday, characterizing the successful procedure as a "partnership with God, my sister and me."

Dr. Sherman Silber, an infertility specialist in St. Louis, performed the transplant in April 2004, and Yarber became pregnant only five months later.

'Did Exactly What We Expected'

Yarber became menopausal at age 14 and was unable to become pregnant without medical help. She had tried in vitro fertilization twice, using eggs donated by her sister, but nothing worked until the ovary transplant.

"It's seemed like a wild thing to do, but after 40 years of animal research, it did exactly what we expected," Silver said.

Silber said he has since performed the transplant surgery on two other sets of identical twins. He said he believes more infertile women will now seek out the procedure.

The child was born at a hospital in Russelville, about 20 miles northwest of Montgomery.

Similar Procedures Performed

There have been similar procedures performed outside the United States.

In Belgium, an ovary was transplanted in September not from another woman, but from the mother herself. Seven years beforehand, doctors removed and froze her ovarian tissue before she underwent chemotherapy. They transplanted the tissue back into her body when she was cleared of cancer.

And more than a year ago, surgeons in China reported a successful whole ovary transplant between sisters.

Associated Press Writer Cheryl Wittenauer in St. Louis contributed to this report.