Poorva Chavan
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Written By: Poorva Chavan | Updated : May 12, 2016 11:48 AM IST
One of the most interesting news I read in the morning today is that a 72-year-old woman in Haryana has given birth to a healthy baby. The mother Daljinder Kaur and the father Mohinder Singh Gill were granted their wish of having a child after 46 years. According to the reports the couple underwent In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) at the National Fertility and Test Tube Baby Centre in Hisar, Haryana. Daljinder gave birth to a baby boy on April 19, 2016, after undergoing IVF treatment for two years. The reports also state that the couple's own egg and sperm were used for the treatment. I have many questions to ask Dr Anurag Bishnoi, who runs this IVF clinic. I tried reaching him on the contact number provided on the website, but the calls were not received.
To put it simply in an IVF treatment, a sperm and an egg are combined in the laboratory under optimal conditions to form an embryo which is then implanted in the uterus where it develops for the next nine months. Now, the egg and the sperm can be of the parents or can be borrowed from a donor.
So here are my questions:
In this case, the woman is seventy years old, and usually, women hit menopause at the age of 45. So how did she produce eggs at the age of seventy? Was she not menopausal? How did the embryo attach itself to the uterus that is not functioning at this age? Were her eggs frozen? If they were, they would have had to be frozen before she reached her menopause which should have been around 25 years ago. And if they were frozen it would have been mentioned in the reports that are floating around, but no report says anything about it. Want to undergo IVF? Find out if it is for you.
So to solve all these doubts I spoke toDr Anirudh Malpani, IVF Specialist, Mumbai and asked him if a woman can give birth at the age of 72. He said, 'This is just not possible, and the news is 100% false. The claims cannot be true. The live birth rate for a woman above the age of 45 is less than 1% globally and beyond the age of 50 is zero. He also said that people who talk about stem cells and reactivating the ovaries is complete hogwash and only tarnishes the image of all the IVF specialists in the country.' If you don't want to fall prey to IVF scams, read this article by Dr Malpani.
'One of the biggest downside of such news is that the government thinks that IVF specialists in the country are not good and that they should be regulated. This might lead to government passing the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, which can prevent a woman from giving birth after the age of 45.' According to Dr Malpani, one of the first line consequences of such a bill which restricts a woman beyond the age of 45 to undergo IVF and give birth is that it can prevent a woman who is 46 years old and has a good chance of getting pregnant with donor eggs from giving birth. He also said that it is highly unfair to women that a man can have a baby at the age of 45 and a woman can't.
Considering all these facts it is best to take such news with a pinch of salt. If you visit the website of National Fertility and Test Tube Baby Centre where the couple in question underwent IVF, you will be shocked. The website boasts of the clinic's achievement in helping many, 24 to be precise, old couples mostly in their 60s and 70s in giving birth.
Now, how this is done is a complete mystery as no one could be reached for comment. It is pretty obvious that the doctors running this clinic, Dr. (Mrs.) Gyanwati Bishnoi, Dr. Anurag and Dr. (Mrs.) Aman Bishnoi have a lot to explain.
Like Dr Malpani said the consequences of this will be far-reaching and the government needs to act now to stop doctors from making false claims and create more damage. It is also important for people to believe in such misleading news which only give false hopes to couples who have difficulty in conceiving.
We also went live on Facebook to discuss this case, watch the video here-
Image source: Shutterstock
