A woman in eastern China has given birth to a baby girl using an embryo that
had been frozen for 18 years. Staff at the Shanghai hospital dubbed the newborn
“the most frost-resistant baby ever” because the embryo had been frozen at
-196°C in liquid nitrogen for nearly two decades, as per reports.
Huang
Qiong, the 45-year-old mother, could not get pregnant when she received an
embryo implant at the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Hospital of Fudan University
in 1998. She had attempted in vitro fertilization since she could not conceive
because of blocked fallopian tubes, a condition known as hydrosalpinx. She then
decided to freeze the rest of the embryos.
When
it is not advisable for a woman to receive an implant through IVF, embryos are
usually frozen. Technology for embryo implantation has seen considerable
improvements over the past 20 years, a doctor at the hospital, Dr Sun Xiaoxi
said, adding that patients at the hospital had seen 43.4 percent success rate
in gestation, as against 30 percent 18 years ago.
She
underwent two frozen embryo transfers, but failed both times. She had also
failed one fresh embryo transfer. A frustrated Huang decided to halt the IVF
treatment and focus on her work. Last year, one of Huang’s friends, who was
treated at the same hospital, got pregnant with a set of twins.
This
prompted the middle-aged Huang to try for a baby again. She re-started her
IVF treatment at the beginning of 2015, using the embryos which had been frozen
in liquid nitrogen in minus 196 degrees Celsius, the report said.
In
November, she was thrilled to be informed that she has become pregnant. She
gave birth to a baby girl weighing 3.3 kg in Jiangsu province on Monday in her
native Jiangsu province.
No comments:
Post a Comment