Click to play videoChennai: It is yet another step forward in artificial reproductive methods. India's first baby from a frozen egg cell was born in Chennai on Wednesday.
The baby is healthy and weighs 2.5 kilos.
Frozen egg cell procedure is an artificial reproduction method where the egg cells from a woman are frozen and later fertilized to yield a foetus.
In this baby's case, an egg cell from a donor was frozen, fertilized with his father's sperm cell and later implanted in the mother.
Doctors feel that this procedure can be a boon for several women who want to delay a pregnancy or loose their egg cells when they are young or even women who suffer from cancer.
A doctor from GG Hospital, Chennai Kamal Selvaraj says, " If a woman is suffering from cancer then she can preserve her egg cell before going in for chemotherapy and can use it once she is recovered from her cancer. Chemotherapy can kill egg cells."
The procedure would also enable siblings to now share their egg cells; however, it is a procedure that has a very low rate of success, virtually only one out of 100 cases mature into a delivery.
Another doctor from GG Hospital Priya Selvaraj says, "Unlike other in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures which have a success rate of 30 to 35 per cent this one results only in 1 per cent success."
It is also difficult to find a donor whose egg can be used. It would mean a match for several factors like age to physical appearances.
Doctors say while they have taken the first step forward, it may still be a while before the procedure is used more often.
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