Physicians Report Nation's First Pregnancy With Triplets Through Egg Freezing

Keck School of Medicine Researchers are Conducting First-of-Its-Kind Study

LOS ANGELES, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Fertility researchers from the Keck
School of Medicine of the University of Southern California have achieved
America's first pregnancy of triplets resulting from frozen eggs.
It is the first triplet pregnancy in the world using a woman's own frozen
eggs.
Physicians from USC Fertility, a nonprofit fertility practice at USC,
implanted the fertilized eggs as part of an ongoing clinical trial. The
physicians have a 20-year background in cryopreservation: In 1986, USC doctors
achieved the conception of America's first baby born after embryo freezing,
and in 1987, reported the first triplet pregnancy after frozen embryo
transfer.
John K. Jain, M.D., associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at
the Keck School, is principal investigator on the self-funded study to examine
the viability of egg freezing. Richard J. Paulson, M.D., professor of
obstetrics and gynecology at the Keck School and director of the Department of
Obstetrics and Gynecology's division of reproductive endocrinology and
infertility, is co-investigator.
Jain notes that the technology is needed for women who might otherwise
have no way to conceive a child. "Many young women diagnosed with cancer lose
their fertility through cancer treatment. They lose their ability to have
children in the future," Jain says. "Some women also undergo early menopause.
This gives them the chance to still have a family."
The USC study is designed to evaluate the efficiency of egg freezing.
Patients in the study are volunteers who need in vitro fertilization (IVF) to
conceive and who have agreed to have all their eggs frozen. The eggs are kept
in liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees Celsius), then they are thawed, inseminated
and placed back in the patient's uterus.
Los Angeles resident Silvia Fajardo, a 31-year-old infertile woman, is
expected to deliver her fraternal triplets in early 2006. She and her
husband, Eric Alberto Urzua, 28, are part of the USC trial, which is the first
of its kind. Researchers plan to release initial results from their study in
late 2005.
"This study is very important for anyone who is longing for a family,"
says Fajardo. "We know there are many families in the world, who have spent
so many years, so many sad times hoping for a family. This kind of treatment
can make their dreams come true, as it did ours."
While physicians have used frozen sperm and frozen embryos to help couples
achieve pregnancy for decades, the practice of cryopreserving eggs for future
fertilization remains relatively rare, with only about 200 babies born
worldwide through this technique. The first pregnancy from a frozen egg was
reported in 1986, while the world's only other triplet pregnancy from frozen
eggs involved an egg donor and was reported in Buenos Aires in 1998.
However, physicians have not yet established egg freezing as a standard
fertility therapy. To do that, they must evaluate the therapy through
rigorous scientific testing and peer-reviewed studies. The American Society
for Reproductive Medicine currently considers egg freezing investigational and
recommends its use only through clinical trials.
That is why Jain and Paulson take the technology so seriously. "When a
woman wants to save her eggs for the future, that's her genetic legacy," Jain
says. "We have to be very cautious with that. Fortunately, blending excellent
lab science with our established clinical skills, we have achieved outstanding
success with pregnancy through this technology."
Paulson explains that the group has honed the technology in a number of
areas: the stimulation of egg production, the slow-freezing method and culture
medium, and thawing and transfer techniques. Only after they were confident of
the technology's potential did they begin the clinical trial in July 2004.
"Even with all of our groundwork, we anticipated a relatively low
implantation rate. This is why our protocol calls for transferring up to 4
embryos at one time," says Paulson. "But the success rate is much higher than
we had expected. The fact that we have 3 babies out of 4 embryos replaced
just shows how well the freezing of eggs is working. This is great news for
our study and also for those who need egg freezing now."

USC Fertility is a leader in fertility-related clinical research and is
dedicated to developing treatment breakthroughs and providing all potential
parents reliable and scientifically tested alternatives for building families
today and tomorrow. For more information visit http://www.USCFertility.org or
call (213) 975-9990.

Contact: David Eng Communications
Los Angeles: Daniel Vaillancourt
323.969.8900 or [email protected]
New York: Gina Ravosa Miller
212.714.3537 or [email protected]



SOURCE USC Fertility
Web site: https://uscfertility.org/