As her newborn baby girl’s tiny hand curls around Leanna Loutas’ finger, her mother can’t help but smile. Little Bonnie Mable is a miracle, after all.
Leanna and Theo Loutas with baby daughter Bonnie. Leanna is the first Australian woman to give birth after undergoing a groundbreaking alternative to IVF, called in vitro maturation.IVF requires women to take follicle-stimulating hormones to prompt egg growth before they are collected from the ovary, while IVM retrieves immature eggs and brings them to maturity in cell culture. It is also cheaper than IVF.
It was a long journey to parenthood for Leanna and husband Theo. A failed IVF cycle – 18 eggs retrieved, one formed an embryo but did not survive past five days – left the couple deflated.The hormones were taxing on Leanna’s body and the toll weighed heavily on the pair’s mental health. Leanna, originally from the United Kingdom, wanted to travel home to see her family after three-and-a-half years of pandemic restrictions.
“We didn’t want to get our hopes up because it’s so new, but the best part about this now is that she’s here she’s giving hope to so many people,” Theo said. By next year, IVM architect and University of NSW Professor Rob Gilchrist said, there is real hope the science will allow specialists to carry out the procedure without the use of hormones at all.
“IVF is something that some women don’t tolerate very well and still has relatively low success rates and while IVF has had tremendous results, in that has produced millions of children around the world, it’s a tough journey for the couple,” Gilchrist said.
Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: smh - 🏆 6. / 80 Read more »