1st baby born with fast-freeze egg
Little Aya weighs in at 2.98kg after doctors use technique that was banned until last year
A WOMAN has given birth to the first baby born in France using in-vitro fertilisation of a fast-frozen egg - a technique that was banned until last year.
Although common elsewhere in the world, fast-freezing eggs had been banned until the 2011 Loi de Bioéthique was passed. Only slow-frozen eggs were allowed and it was known to be a less effective technique.
Baby Aya was born on March 4 in the Debré Hospital in Paris and weighed in at 2.98kg. She was 48cm and born naturally at 36 weeks.
Paris Hospitals Authority AP-HP also said the egg had been fertilised using a sperm that had also been frozen.
The fast-freezing of the egg and the in-vitro fertilisation was done by Professor Jean-Philippe Wolf at the Cochin Clinic. Fast-freezing allows the eggs to be frozen without the formation of ice crystals, which destroys vital cells.
It is allowed only in cases where the mother is at risk of becoming sterile due to medical treatment, such as chemotherapy.
The first French test-tube baby, Amandine, was born in 1982, four years after the world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in the UK.
Photo: Luk Cox - Fotolia.com
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