Preserved Embryon To Join The Family In Half A Year

11.02.2011

HANNAH Gilligan will be 18 months older than her new little brother or sister even though she was created at the same time.

Ten-month-old Hannah was born thanks to in-vitro fertilisation at Monash IVF in Southport.

Her mum and dad, Melinda and Todd, knew they wanted more children and time was running out for them, so they made the decision to preserve the other life they had created.

The couple froze four embryos from their first successful IVF attempt and nine months after their daughter's birth were back to see if they could conceive again.

They did straight away and Mrs Gilligan is now about 11 weeks along.

The Merrimac couple are not the first to have such success with Monash.

More than five couples in the past eight weeks have become pregnant on their first attempt using frozen embryos.

The success rate is partly thanks to vitrification or snap freezing technology.

Snap freezing leaves embryos with a 90 per cent survival rate, compared to the 50 to 70 per cent rate achieved from the previous slow freeze method.

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Monash has been using the method for the past couple of years but believe they have also been helped by their embryo transfer technique.

They wait for the embryo to become a blastocyst, which is usually around the five-day mark.

This means the embryo is more developed and there is a greater chance of falling pregnant and faster.

Dr Kee Ong said some couples wrongly believed it was about preserving as many fertilised eggs as they could.

''It's about quality, not quantity,'' he said.

'People come through an IVF treatment to have a baby, not to compete to see how many eggs and embryos they have.''

Mrs Gilligan said they were so relieved and happy to pull off a pregnancy in their first attempt.

They had to thaw out three eggs to find one that was suitable, which means they have one left if they want to try for a third child without going through IVF again.

At 38 and 37, the couple said age simply had the better of them when it came to conceiving naturally.

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