A woman who lost her fertility through premature menopause at 14 has given birth to a girl after an ovary transplant from her identical twin sister.

Stephanie Yarber, 25, from Alabama, had twice tried IVF treatment with her husband, Kevin, before doctors at St Luke's hospital, in St Louis, Missouri, told her that her sister might help her conceive.

During a five-hour operation on April 21 last year, the medical team, led by Sherman Silber, removed an ovary belonging to Mrs Yarber's twin sister, Melanie Morgan, who has three children.

Most of the ovarian tissue was grafted on to each of Mrs Yarber's ovaries, but a third of it was kept back and frozen in case the grafts proved unsuccessful.

Four months later, Mrs Yarber had her first period in more than a decade, and conceived soon afterwards.

Doctors announced last night that she had given birth to a healthy baby daughter after a 38-week pregnancy.

Mrs Yarber's daughter will be as similar to her mother as any of her natural children could have been because identical twins share the same DNA.

The first details of the remarkable procedure were published yesterday on the website of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Despite Mrs Yarber's success, most doctors believe the procedure will be of little use to women who do not have an identical twin sister to donate an ovary.

However, Dr Silber and his team think the process could help female cancer patients who have their ovaries removed and frozen before having radical treatments.

"Although ovarian transplantation between monozygotic twins will be rare, the demonstration that ovarian function can be restored and that natural conception and pregnancy can be achieved after transplantation of ovarian tissue may have broader implications for young women, such as those who require potentially sterilising treatment for cancer," said Dr Silber.