Boston IVF today announced a participant in their fully enrolled egg freezing study has become pregnant. This is the first pregnancy in Massachusetts to result from egg freezing. The study was performed by Boston IVF and sponsored by an independent medical grant from EMD Serono, a biotech company with an area of focus on infertility.
The process of successfully freezing eggs is very delicate and arduous. The egg is the largest cell in the human body. It is comprised mostly of water and thus very difficult to freeze without destroying it. Boston IVF uses technology that replaces the fluid with molecules that make the egg less vulnerable to freezing and more viable for fertilization once they are thawed.
“The pregnancy resulting from this study is a major milestone for Boston IVF and holds enormous promise for patients who hope to preserve their fertility by freezing their eggs so that they can become pregnant at a later time in their lives,” said. Dr. Michael Alper, medical director of Boston IVF and lead investigator in the study. “We now have the option of suspending a women’s biological clock. Egg freezing is also particularly wonderful for cancer patients who may become sterile from chemotherapy. Under the leadership of Boston IVF’s scientific director, Dr. Douglas Powers, we plan to continue our research to perfect technologies that will provide patients with the most effective and safest options for building families.”
Celine Dion has spoken openly about the fact that she has a fertilized egg waiting in storage just in case she wants another baby later.
She thinks that the second one will be a twin for her first child Rene Charles,6. She became pregnant with her first child through in vitro fertilization.
More information available at www.ivf.com
