GIFT baby is Hong Kong’s first

Hongkong’s seventh test-tube baby – and the first by a new method – was born at the Prince of Wales Hospital early this week.

The Chinese University, whose team performed the fertilisation, announced the birth yesterday. The parents’ names have not been disclosed.
The baby was the first in Hongkong to be born by GIFT – Gamete Intrallopian Tube Transfer – which is said to have a higher success rate than the more familiar In Vitro Fertilisation(IVF).

In IVF, a woman’s eggs are removed, fertilized in a laboratory and then returned to the womb. In GIFT eggs and sperm are placed in the fallopian tube for fertillisation to take place naturally.
A spokesman for the university said the GIFT baby was a boy weighing 2.7 kilograms.
He was born on Tuesday to a woman who had a four-year history of unexplained infertility. The university spokesman said the GIFT technique – first developed in the United States – had some similarities with IVF in the treatment and collection of the eggs and sperm.

But instead of being fertilized outside the woman’s body, the eggs and sperm are placed in the fallopian tubes immediately after collection.
The technique requires the woman to have at least one functioning fallopian tube so that the developing embryo can gain access to the womb.

The spokesman said the woman giving birth to the first GIFT baby was the first of three to become pregnant after having GIFT performed on them at the university. The technique has been tried on on eight couples so far.

Besides the Chinese University, clinics at Hongkong University and the IVF Centre at Hongkong Sanatorium and Hospital (HKSH) are using the technique.

Reference information: www.thestandard.com.hk

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