First baby in the world successfully born from frozen eggs grown in a lab

This new procedure might just be the biggest breakthrough for fertility treatments.

When a French woman was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 29, she decided to freeze seven of her fertilized eggs for five years before she had to go for chemotherapy, Mirror reports.

But due to time constraints, the woman couldn’t be given ovarian stimulation hormones which would’ve helped her produce matured eggs and as a result, experts resorted to the removal of the immature eggs, a process called in vitro maturation (IVM).

The removed eggs were then fertilized in a lab outside of the woman’s body, a process known as in vitro fertilization (IVF), Reproductive Facts reports.

After being successfully fertilized for five years in the lab, the matured eggs were then inserted into the woman’s womb, despite her now being infertile following the intense cancer treatment.

According to fertility specialist Antoine Béclère, after a nine months of pregnancy the woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy. He was named Jules and he’s the first baby to be successfully born through the procedure, The Guardian reports.

“We didn’t know whether or not the frozen eggs would survive and keep their potential to produce a pregnancy and live birth,” says Michaël Grynberg, head of medicine and fertility preservation at the hospital.

“It was a good surprise for us,” Grynberg added.

Sources: Mirror, ReproductiveFacts, The Guardian

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