Pregnant possibility: fertility bites

A 40-year-old Emirati has become the first woman in the Gulf to get pregnant using the latest assisted reproduction method – egg freezing through vetrification, the Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre reported.

The technique gives hope to countless women who need to delay their pregnancy for medical or other reasons, said Dr Husnia Gargash, Director of the Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre.

"This procedure is highly beneficial for cancer patients and for women who need to undergo other destructive ovarian procedures," said Husnia.

"During post chemotherapy or radiotherapy, the ovaries get affected and it becomes difficult for women to become pregnant. Now they can freeze their eggs before starting treatment."

She added that although freezing eggs has been a fairly common and known method, the difference is the manner in which the egg is frozen.

"In the earlier method of freezing eggs, ice would form in the cytoplasm and affect the chromosomes. This resulted in low egg survival and poor pregnancy rate."

The new technique, she said, does not let ice seep into the egg because the freezing takes place quickly.

Age was not on her side, but the method worked

"I didn’t react when the doctor told me that I was pregnant. I was aware that the treatment had only a slim chance of working," said Fatma Hussain (not her real name), 40, an Emirati doctor who became the first woman in the Gulf to undergo the new method of freezing eggs for assisted pregnancy. She is now three weeks pregnant.

"I knew I had blocked tubes and even age was not on my side. After my first child was born four years ago, I tried to get pregnant again, but nothing worked," she said.