Successful method of freezing new embryos

For the first time in Vietnam, Khoa's late doctors (Tu Du Hospital, Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital) have succeeded in applying the new embryo freezing method: Vitrification.

Vitrification is 'Freezing embryos extremely fast with vitrification'. The first woman who was fortunate to get pregnant thanks to this technique is Miss NTH. Up to now, Ms. H. has been pregnant for the 15th week, the health of the fetus and pregnant women are very good.

Dr. Ho Manh Tuong - Dean of the Rare and Late Department said that this technique has been deployed by the hospital since May 2006.

Currently, the specialist team at Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital has conducted cold storage of embryos according to the new method for 78 cases, with more than 300 embryos. There were 17 cases of embryo thawing and embryo transfer into the uterus.

Twelve women in these 17 people have had a pregnancy test and fetal ultrasound. The result is 6 pregnancies, reaching the rate of 50%. Remarkably, the fetuses are developing normally.

Currently, frozen embryo storage is a technique adopted by most fertility support centers in the world because it helps to reduce costs greatly because it is not necessary to use drugs to stimulate the ovaries to create fresh embryos.

The successful application of frozen embryo culture technique opens the prospect of implementing in vitro fertilization (TTTON) more easily than before, often having to re-start from the beginning in case of failure.

Normally, the pregnancy rate of fresh embryo transplantation is only about 30-35%. If re-transplanting a second time with fresh embryos, the cost is usually quite expensive, about 25-30 million VND. A frozen embryo transplant is only about 1.5 million VND (if more embryos are stored, the cost is higher) and avoid possible complications.

Embryo freezing and thawing program has been successfully implemented in Tu Du Hospital since 2002. So far, thousands of cases have been stored in embryos and over 200 babies have been born from frozen embryo storage techniques. at Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital. The program has contributed to increasing the success rate, reducing treatment costs and reducing the risk of complications for patients implementing IVF.

Previously Tu Du Hospital carried out cold storage of embryos according to the classic slow temperature reduction method, this is also the method used by the world. However, this method has some disadvantages such as low rate of live embryos, time-consuming, need to use machines, use a lot of nitrogen, unstable programs, high maintenance costs of machines .

According to Dr. Tuong, the method of ultra-fast embryo cryopreservation by vitrification has been applied in the world before. But only in the past few years, this method has been improved, showing superiority compared to the slow classical cooling method and is gradually replacing the old method in most centers.

By the end of this year, Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital is expected to transfer this new technology to other centers in Vietnam.

Thai Ha