Health News
2007-04-14
Baby born from
frozen sperm and frozen egg
A woman gave
birth Wednesday to the first baby conceived in the U.S. by
means of frozen sperm and a frozen egg, according to the
A woman gave
birth Wednesday to the first baby conceived in the U.S. by
means of frozen sperm and a frozen egg, according to the
fertility firm that sponsored the study in which she
took part.
Adrienne Domasin,
36, decided to participate in the study by Extend
Fertility after being told two years ago her fallopian tubes
were blocked.
Domasin, who is
single, was unable to afford in vitro fertilization but
was determined to have a baby.
''When they told
me my tubes were blocked, I was, naturally,
devastated,'' she said. ''Here I was, ready to finally have
the baby of my dreams, and I couldn't.''
Egg-freezing
traditionally has been reserved for women who suffered from
illnesses that might leave them infertile, and it has a
low success rate. But there has been recent demand for
the procedure by women in their 30s who want to have
children in the future but are afraid they will be too
old to conceive the traditional way, said Jane Frederick,
MD, of Laguna Hills, Calif., who oversaw
Domasin's fertility treatment.
The low viability
of frozen eggs is due, in part, to ice crystals that
can damage the egg's structure, though freezing sperm has
been done for decades, said Richard Paulson, MD, who
is also a professor of reproductive medicine at the
University of Southern California.
There have been
about 200 documented births from frozen eggs worldwide,
Paulson said. But he had not heard of other cases of frozen
egg–frozen sperm conceptions. The Journal of
Assisted Reproduction and Genetics reported
one case last year in Australia.
During the study
Domasin received shots and pills to stimulate egg
production. Fertility personnel harvested the eggs, froze
them, and after four months injected them with thawed
donor sperm. A fertilized egg was then placed inside
her.
Domasin's son,
Noah Peter Domasin, was born at Saddleback Memorial
Medical Center in Laguna Hills, weighing 8 pounds, 4
ounces.
''I kept waking
up in the middle of the night and I would glance over at
him,'' Domasin said. ''I just kept saying to myself, He's
my son.'' (AP)
Click here to follow The Advocate on Twitter.
Page 1 of 1