A 34-year-old cancer survivor has become the first to give birth via her own frozen, lab-matured egg.
Doctors in France, who published a report on the fertility advancement in the Annals of Oncology, announced that a healthy baby boy had been born five years after the woman’s eggs were extracted, when she was 29.
In most cases, ovarian stimulation hormones are administered to the patient to help the eggs achieve maturation prior to harvesting. But due to her chemotherapy schedule, the woman in question, who was not named in the letter, opted to take a chance on in vitro maturation (IVM), a procedure that involves culturing the ovum with hormones in a lab setting to prepare them for fertilization.
“We were delighted that the patient became pregnant without any difficulty and successfully delivered a healthy baby at term,” said Michaël Grynberg, head of the reproductive and fertility department at Antoine Béclère University Hospital, in a statement. “My team and I trusted that IVM could work when ovarian stimulation was not feasible.”
Doctors removed and matured seven of her eggs before putting them through the rapid-cooling process called vitrification. Once the woman’s breast cancer was in remission five years later, she was told that her illness and subsequent treatment had left her infertile.
Five in all were successfully fertilized by scientists after being thawed, and a single embryo was transferred to her womb. On July 6, 2019, she gave birth to son Jules.
Gynberg calls their work a “breakthrough in the field of fertility preservation.”
“IVM enables us to freeze eggs or embryos in urgent situations or when it would be hazardous for the patient to undergo ovarian stimulation. In addition, using them is not associated with a risk of cancer recurrence,” he explained.
He and his team also acknowledged that lab-matured eggs “are of a lower quality” compared to those naturally produced by the body or via ovarian stimulation hormones.
Added Grynberg, “However, our success with Jules shows that this technique should be considered a viable option for female fertility preservation, ideally combined with ovarian tissue cryopreservation as well.”