After four years of frustration over trying to conceive a baby, Omar and Natasha Rajani finally succeeded through a medical technique known as Augment.
The Rajani couple became the parents of the first baby to be born with this advanced in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, which could benefit other infertile couples or those having difficulty with conception.
Eight more women like Natasha are expected to deliver soon after undergoing the Augment treatment.
Hailed as a remarkable achievement in the world of assisted reproductive technology, Augment is an experimental fertility treatment that recharges poor quality eggs, one of the most familiar causes of infertility.
During the outpatient procedure, a sample of the woman's ovarian tissue is obtained, and healthy egg stem cells are acquired from it. The mitochondria, little power packs that weaken with age, from those egg precursor cells are injected with sperm then combined with her retrieved eggs to increase their quality.
The fertilized eggs are developed in the blastocyst stage, about five days after fertilization, then the resulting embryos are delivered back to the uterus of the patient. Embryos that reach the blastocyst stage are more suitable for implanting and thus lead to a successful maternity.
Natasha and Omar had previously attempted intrauterine insemination, fertility drugs, naturopathy, then the conventional IVF, which ended in miscarriage.
After a single cycle of the Augment procedure last May and the successful transfer of the embryo in August during the treatment at the Toronto Center for Advanced Reproductive Technology (TCART), the couple was able to conceive with four viable embryos and freeze two embryos for potential future use.
One of them became Baby Zain who was born this April, the first baby conceived through Augment.
"We see Zain as a symbol of hope for all couples struggling with infertility. While the process is long, emotionally and physically draining, there is light at the end of the tunnel—and that light for us is Zain," Natasha said.
Some scientists believe Augment can significantly increase the success rates of IVF treatments, which are currently about 38 percent for women with poor quality eggs in their late 30s and 18 percent for infertile women in their early 40s.
The treatment, which costs $23,500 on top of an $8,000 IVF cycle, is now offered in Dubai and Turkey and will soon be available in the UK.
Augment is not yet available in the U.S. as it is considered "gene therapy." The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates all types of gene therapy.
OvaScience, the Massachusetts-based company that developed Augment, plans to conduct 1,000 cycles in testing the Augment procedure this year to produce sufficient data and have the procedure legalized in the U.S.
Photo: Bridget Coila | Flickr
