Baby born in China from human embryo frozen 18 years ago
Mother, 46, decided to try fertility treatment again after failing to get pregnant in 1990s, says newspaper report
A woman in eastern China has given birth to baby girl using an embryo frozen 18 years ago, according to media reports.
The 46-year-old mother from Jiangsu province, who was not named, had embryos frozen in 1998, the China Youth Daily said.
The woman had received a series of fertility treatments in the 1990s, but failed to get pregnant, the report said.
She decided to try again with the help of doctors at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital at Fudan University in Shanghai after a friend recently got pregnant with twins, according to the article.
Her baby was born on Monday at a hospital in Jiangsu weighing 3.3kg and is in a healthy condition.
A circular released by the Shanghai Health Bureau suggests it is best to freeze human embryos for up to five years.
But Sun Yijuan, the director of the embryo laboratory administered at the hospital, said as long as patients don’t sign an agreement to give them up, her institution will continue freezing them.
An increasing number of older women have been seeking fertility treatments in China since the country formally scrapped the one-child policy.
Mainland media reported earlier in June that a woman from Guangzhou was pregnant after embryos frozen 12 years ago were implanted in her body.
Media reports suggested at the time it was record age for the procedure in China.
