Woman, 46, gives birth using embryo frozen 16 years ago

A mother holds her newborn baby. INQUIRER STOCK PHOTO

A 46-year-old woman from China has given birth to a baby boy using an embryo frozen 16 years ago.

In a report by China’s Xinhua news agency, the 3.8-kg infant was born earlier this month at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong Province, China.

A fertility doctor told local news sites that the woman had been diagnosed with fertility issues and had to undergo in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, a process where an egg and sperm are combined in a laboratory dish, to give birth. She gave birth to her first child back in 2000.

“I’m just really ecstatic to have another child,” the woman told news sites.

When China repealed its one-child policy in January 2016, the woman approached the same hospital to have her embryos embedded and get pregnant.

Wang Zilian, the woman’s attending physician, admitted that there were challenges in the woman’s IVF process, such as her age and the diseases she suffered from. Apparently, the woman had thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder, and gestational diabetes. The mother and son were reportedly in good shape and were to be discharged from the hospital soon.

Xu Yanwen, director of the hospital’s reproductive center, said that since the scrapping of the one-child law, more Chinese women are desperate to conceive their second children with the aid of IVF and other forms of reproductive technology.

“As more mothers come to have their embryos unfrozen, the record may probably be broken any time,” Xu said. “With the end of the one-child policy, an increasing number of women of advanced maternal age have visited the hospital to conceive with the help of Assisted Reproductive Technology.” Gianna Francesca Catolico