McGill University Health Center of Canada helped in conceiving and delivering world’s first baby born from frozen eggs.
The 26 year old mother of the baby had her eggs collected from her, frozen by the special process called vitrification, and thawed and fertilized from sperms of her partner through in-vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection. The resultant embryo was implanted in her uterus, which she carried to a full term pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.Freezing of eggs taken from the ovaries of woman is a difficult procedure that results in ice crystal formation and decreases the longevity of the eggs. Hence it is very difficult to use this procedure to treat infertility problems. The Canadian university had developed the new method of rapid freezing of the eggs in the process called vitrification, where eggs are frozen rapidly in liquid nitrogen at –1960 C in order to avoid the formation of ice crystals. At this temperature eggs can be successfully stored for long durations till the time they are required. Then they can be extracted out of their protective casings, thawed and fertilized.
The new process will be able to help women in solving some of their infertility problems like that of delayed motherhood, or disease rendering them infertile.
