Baby Born from Egg that Was Matured and Frozen in the Lab

A cancer patient who underwent the new fertility preservation procedure successfully gave birth five years after her immature eggs were collected.

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A 34-year-old woman has given birth thanks to a new fertility procedure that involved collecting, maturing, and freezing some of her eggs five years earlier. Although lab-based maturation of eggs has been done before, the case study, published yesterday (February 18) in Annals of Oncology, represents the first successful pregnancy from immature eggs that were frozen after they were matured.

“We didn’t know whether or not the frozen eggs would survive and keep their potential to produce a pregnancy and live birth,” study coauthor Michaël Grynberg, head of reproductive medicine and fertility preservation at Antoine Béclère University Hospital in Paris, where the procedure was carried out, tells The Guardian. “It was a good surprise for us.”

The woman opted for a fertility preservation treatment after being diagnosed with breast cancer at 29 years old, as chemotherapy drugs can contribute to infertility.

The standard fertility intervention for ...

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Meet the Author

  • Catherine Offord

    Catherine is a science journalist based in Barcelona.
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