NPR's Radiolab Presents: Gonads

This podcast series blew my mind. To give you an example, here is an introduction into the second part:

At 28 years old, Annie Dauer was living a full life. She had a job she loved as a highschool PE teacher, a big family who lived nearby, and a serious boyfriend. Then, cancer struck. Annie would come to find out she had Stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It was so aggressive, there was a real chance she might die. Her oncologists wanted her to start treatment immediately. Like, end-of-the-week immediately. But before Annie started treatment, she walked out of the doctor’s office and crossed the street to see a fertility doctor doing an experimental procedure that sounded like science fiction: ovary freezing.

The concept of "ovary freezing" was just being theorized, and since Ms. Dauer didn't have any foreseeable options - the extreme chemotherapy necessary to eradicate the Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was most likely going to also kill the eggs in her ovaries - she elected to let a doctor try to freeze her entire ovary to see if she could beat the cancer, and then insert the ovary into the muscle below her belly button to revive the ovary.  YES, you read that right: the doctor thought he could revive the ovary by INSERTING IT BACK INTO HER BODY IN ANOTHER PLACE, and then collect the eggs, that he hoped would start being released magically, for in vitro fertilization, but that's not what ended up happening, the true story is EVEN WEIRDER!

Listen to the whole series on NPR's Radiolab here: "Gonads", start with "The Primordial Journey", and then follow the release dates to listen to the rest of the episodes in order.