A new treatment of genito-urinary post-menopausal atrophy with autologous micro-fragmented fat tissue: a thirty-six months follow up case series

Objective: Genitourinary atrophy is a menopausal pathological change determined by the definitive drop of ovarian hormones' production that can impact heavily on the health status of women, with important direct and indirect social costs. Unfortunately, available treatments are only symptomatic, and they are not able to reverse the atrophy and other related symptoms. Regenerative medicine, with single local injection of autologous micro-fractured fat tissue, could represent a viable new solution for these patients as it not only helps to relieve symptoms, but it also counteracts the mechanisms that lead to the menopausal genitourinary atrophy. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of micro-fractured fat vulvar injection for genito-urinary atrophy in patients, affected by severe genitourinary atrophy (at least 4 symptoms lasting for at least 4 years).

Patients and methods: We present a case series of 35 patients followed for 36 months to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a single subcutaneous vulvar injection of autologous micro-fragmented fat tissue (MFAT).

Results: We have not observed any adverse effects in any patients. All symptoms, and especially pelvic pain and dyspareunia, improved in almost half of patients within 3 months. Ninety-nine percent of patients recovered completely from all symptoms after 9-12 months, reporting no relapse of the symptoms up to the third year of follow up.

Conclusions: Our case series is the first case series, evaluating the long-term (3 years) safety and effectiveness of micro-fragmented adipose tissue graft for urogenital atrophy.