10-year-old frozen embryo

A baby girl has officially set a Malaysian record by the unique circumstances of her birth.

One-year-old Wong Wai Jing and her mother, June Tan, 47, were listed in the Malaysian Book of Records (MBR) on Jan 19, 2010, after a one-month survey conducted by MBR confirmed that the 10-year-old frozen embryo used to conceive Wai Jing was indeed frozen for the longest time to successfully produce a child in the country.

“There are other embryos that were stored for longer periods in Malaysia, but they have not been used or were discarded,” said Dr Chung Chow Cheang, the fertility specialist who performed the in-vitro fertilisation procedure on Tan in 2008.

“This is the first time a 10-year-old embryo has been used to successfully conceive a child in Malaysia,” he added.

Worldwide, there were limited cases of successful births using frozen embryos stored for long periods of time due to concern that the quality of the embryo might decline over time.

The birth here may indicate that embryos frozen for a long time could still be used safely to help couples conceive, Dr Chung said.

Met at her house, Tan, accompanied by her husband, K.K. Wong, 48, said she was exhilarated to find out about the new record.

“I never thought of applying for the record, until my friend commented that my baby is a miracle baby because no one in Malaysia had attempted it before,” she said.

Asked whether she still wanted another baby, Tan said she would keep her options open but would prefer to conceive naturally.

Tags: baby, baby girl, birth, births, chung chow, circumstances, couples, Dr Chung, embryo, embryos, fertilisation, fertility specialist, frozen embryo, jan 19, K.K. Wong, long periods of time, long time, longest time, Malaysia, miracle baby, record, Tan, time, vitro, wai, Wong Wai

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 10:33 am and is filed under Malaysia, Women. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.