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Chinese Mom Pregnant with World's 3rd "Three-Frozens" Test-Tube Baby

Dec 10, 2010

Wang Hui is four months pregnant with a test-tube baby conceived with a frozen egg, frozen sperm and a frozen embryo. She smiles on hearing the results of a pre-natal check - her unborn baby's condition is normal.

The baby is the world's third and China's second "three-frozens" baby, said Yang Qing, an expert at the People's Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan City in central China's Hubei Province.

Wang Hui and her husband began their fertility treatment at hospital at the beginning of the year.

In July, doctors thawed and implanted into Wang's womb two embryos that came from the couple's eggs and sperm that was frozen in March.

"Unlike sperm and embryo freezing technologies which are comparatively mature, egg freezing is a cutting edge technology still at the experimental stage," said Yang Qing. "Compared to sperm and embryos, eggs are fragile. They may perish during the freezing and thawing process."

A new technology, called egg vitrification, that can instantaneously freeze eggs has dramatically increased the survival rate of the frozen eggs.

And it is not just infertile couples who can benefit from the technique.

Young women suffering from cancer can keep their reproductive capacity by freezing their eggs before receiving chemo and radiotherapy, Yang said.

The world's first "three-frozens" test-tube baby was born in 2004 in Italy. China's first and the world's second "three-frozens" test-tube baby was born in 2006 in Beijing, the Chinese capital.

"Many babies born through in vitro fertilization (IVF) across the world have proved healthy," said Yang. "However, we still need to do long-term evaluations of the 'three-frozens' babies' health, to decide whether there is any health hazards with the 'three-frozens' technology."

"The rapid development of IVF is promising but we still encourage natural conception since the naturally conceived babies are more likely to be healthy," Yang added.

(Source: Xinhua)

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