The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Twin success from donor eggs

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Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Twin success from donor eggs

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Less than a year ago, in August 2008, a baby was born after eggs donated by a stranger was first frozen, then thawed. About 14 weeks ago, the procedure was repeated on a 41-year-old woman, with twice the measure of success – two foetuses formed in her womb after she received donor eggs.

New method

Doctors at the Fertility Research Centre in GG Hospital here claimed that the country’s first twin pregnancy from frozen, thawed female eggs (oocytes) using a new method of freezing called vitrification, was well on its way. Vitrification is a rapid, more successful method of freezing the eggs, said Priya Selvaraj, who performed the procedure on Mrs.S. It has not yet outdone the more popular freezing method, but the risk of freezing within the cell comes down significantly, thereby rendering better recovery and fertilisation rates.

Mrs.S had failed previous attempts at conception, using the intra-uterine insertion technique and was what her doctors called, ‘a poor responder.’ However, she had no other medical illnesses and was deemed fit for frozen egg transfer.

The eggs, from a donor, were fertilised with her husband’s pre-prepared sperms using the intracytoplasmic sperm injection method. The embryos so formed were then transferred to the mother, five of them at a time, to increase the chances of a pregnancy.

She tested positive for pregnancy on March 31 this year and the twin foetuses are normal and doing well, Dr. Priya said.

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