NEW DELHI, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A 25-year-old woman, whose pituitary gland, which helps influence sexual development, was removed because of a tumor, has delivered a baby girl in what doctors say is an extremely rare phenomenon, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Sunday.

    The woman conceived through intra-uterine insemination at a hospital in southern Indian city of Madurai.

    V Sunitha, a doctor at Madurai's Vikram hospital described the delivery as the rarest of the rare case.

    Conception and delivering a healthy baby for a patient who has undergone pituitary tumor surgery is a rarity, the doctor said.

    The pituitary gland, a small organ at the base of the brain that produces hormones that influence growth and sexual development, of the woman, who was not named in the report, was removed in 2002.

    Such patients do not conceive because their ovarian hormones are not produced optimally to fertilize the eggs and to maintain the pregnancy. Even if they become pregnant, there will be miscarriages, pre-term labor, growth restriction of the fetus and intra-uterine death of the baby, doctors say.

    The woman, when she came to the hospital in October 2006, was not having menstrual periods.

    She was subjected to hormonal checks and put to Periodical Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin Injection and Intra-Uterine Insemination (IUI), Sunitha said. She conceived during the second cycle of IUI and was monitored closely during her pregnancy by a series of ultrasound scans and hormone assays.

    "After 37 weeks, an elective caesarean section was done and she delivered a normal baby girl weighing 2.3 kg last week. Now both baby and mother are fine," Sunitha said.