Emily’s birth a first for Britain

A WOMAN has become the first in Britain to give birth using her own frozen eggs.

Experts say the birth of Emily Perry three months ago gives hope to women who are worried about losing their chance of having a child through illnesses such as cancer.

But Dr Gillian Lockwood, whose team made the breakthrough, says: “The technology ... will work just as well for the Bridget Jones generation who want to freeze their eggs to keep their reproductive options open.”

On ITV’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald this evening at 8pm, she explains: “I think that egg freezing may come to be seen as the ultimate kind of family planning.”

In an exclusive interview with the programme, Emily’s parents Lee and Helen, who have been married for 17 years, tell how they turned to IVF after discovering that Mrs Perry had blocked fallopian tubes.

However, as Jehovah Witnesses, they did not feel they could go through with standard IVF treatment.

Usually several embryos are created and those that turn out not to be needed are discarded.

The couple, who live in the Midlands, decided to go for a procedure known as natural IVF, where only one or two eggs are taken which are then fertilised and transferred back into the woman so embryos are not wasted.

However, it was discovered Mrs Perry had a condition called Ovarian Hyper Stimulation and so the medical team froze the eggs.

The Midlands Fertility Services clinic near Walsall used a new technique which involved developing “anti-freeze” that protected the egg when it was frozen and then thawed.

Six out of eight eggs survived the thawing process, two were successfully fertilised and they were implanted into Mrs Perry but did not take.

The procedure was repeated and this time it worked.

Mrs Perry says: “I’d always dreamed about ringing everybody up and saying I’m pregnant.

“I was just crying so much I couldn’t do any of that. Lee had to do all that. It was amazing.”

Dr Lockwood said the pregnancy was an anxious time as “we were aware that it was the first time in the UK that a woman had achieved a pregnancy using her own previously frozen and thawed eggs.

“Any pregnancy, especially using such a revolutionary technique, is bound to be a time of great anxiety but as the pregnancy went on and Helen reported back encouraging news we started to relax.”

In June this year, Emily was born to the delight of her parents and the team at the clinic.