UAE’s First Frozen-egg Baby Born in Sharjah

From: Asma Ali Zain

DUBAI —The first baby to be born from a frozen-egg technique in the UAE and Gulf region was recently delivered at Al Qassimi hospital, Sharjah.

The baby boy is healthy and weighs 3.30kg.

His Emirati mother, 40, had been undergoing infertility treatment at the Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre for some time before doctors used the new technique to help deliver her first child.

This delivery gives a huge boost to the frozen-egg technique which was previously known to have a very poor success rate the world over.

“This is a huge development for us,” said Dr Samer Radi, Senior Embryologist and head of the section at Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre.

He explained that the woman’s eggs were frozen a few months before the actual procedure took place. “Until now, the cryo (egg) survival rate has been low due to the freezing and thawing process but with the new technique we have achieved a near 100 per cent success,” said Dr Radi.

“Three other women who used this technique are pregnant and will be delivering their babies in the next few months,” he added.

Dr Radi said that until recently the frozen-egg technique only gave a two per cent success rate per oocyte (female germ cell) and this dissuaded doctors from around the world to use this form of treatment. Instead, doctors substituted this technique with freezing embryos which was known to have a higher success rate.

“However, the problem with the frozen embryo technique was that it could not be used in certain cases, such as for unmarried females undergoing chemotherapy or even due to religious or legal issues,” said Dr Radi.

He said all this changed with the recent development in the frozen-egg technique which drastically improved the success rate and gives hope to many couples dealing with infertility. Dr Radi believes that the technique may replace the earlier process of freezing embryos.