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Lexington Baby First Born Using Frozen Donor Egg

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 January 2006, 09:00 CST

By Barbara Isaacs, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky., The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Jan. 4--Lexington's Wendy and Jared Kennedy ended 2005 by making history.

Wendy Kennedy, 41, delivered the first baby conceived using a frozen donor egg purchased from the nation's first commercial egg bank.

The Kennedys' daughter, Avery Lee, weighed 8 pounds and was born 2:37 a.m. Saturday at the University of Kentucky Hospital. Avery was born via Caesarean section and was delivered by Dr. W. Lisle Dalton.

"I just thought she was perfect," said Jared Kennedy, 34, as he held his daughter.

"It feels a little like a dream," Wendy Kennedy said. "Like someone's going to come in and say: 'OK, thanks for watching her.'"

The couple brought Avery home from the hospital yesterday and are already considering continuing to add to their family using frozen donor eggs.

"We are definitely thinking about doing it again," Wendy Kennedy said. "We have a perfect girl and we'd like to have a perfect boy."

Wendy and Jared Kennedy purchased frozen donor eggs from Cryo Eggs International, a Phoenix-based egg bank. Cryo Eggs was the first company to specialize in selling frozen donor eggs; there is now a second company based in Los Angeles that also offers frozen donor eggs.

Cryo Eggs began selling frozen donor eggs in March; the Kennedys were the second customers and the first to become pregnant and give birth.

Wendy Kennedy is a University of Kentucky cancer nurse and could not produce healthy eggs of her own. The Kennedys bought seven frozen donor eggs, which cost $2,500 each. Three were successfully fertilized with Jared Kennedy's sperm and implanted in his wife on April 23. Wendy Kennedy became pregnant with a single fetus and was due to deliver on Jan. 10.

If the couple decides to try to become pregnant again, they could get eggs from the same donor, making their children full siblings.

The marketing of frozen eggs is a novel new approach in fertility treatment. Sperm and embryos have long been frozen for later use, but eggs had been much more difficult to preserve. Because of their high water content, they tend to form damaging ice crystals when frozen. But specialists with Cryo Eggs International have worked to improve techniques in freezing and thawing eggs, which has improved the outcomes.

Most often, human eggs used in fertility treatments are harvested from the ovaries and then immediately implanted after fertilization. That process, which uses fresh donor eggs, gives about a 50 percent chance of pregnancy. It's about 30 percent when using frozen donor eggs as the Kennedys did.

Though frozen donor eggs are expensive, fresh donor eggs are even more expensive and often there is a waiting list to get them.

Kennedy's pregnancy was normal, though she did have some complications at the end. She developed pregnancy-related high blood pressure, known as pre-eclampsia, and Bell palsy, which temporarily paralyzes one side of the face.

Kennedy was at higher risk of developing pre-eclampsia because of her age and because she became pregnant through in vitro fertilization. Neither complication happened because Avery was conceived using a frozen donor egg, Dalton said.

"The proof of the pudding is that she has a healthy baby daughter," Dalton said.

The Phoenix egg bank has strong Lexington ties. Its medical director is Dr. James Akin, a Lexington fertility specialist who treated the Kennedys.

"We're all excited," Akin said. "The baby's pretty much perfect."

Wendy Kennedy said that doctors Dalton and Akin were beaming nearly as much as her husband.

Akin said that two more pregnancies have resulted from Cryo Eggs frozen donor eggs, including another Lexington couple and another outside of Kentucky.

"Having this birth will only help," Akin said. "I hope it improves the visibility" of the option of using frozen donor eggs.

"We're glad we can get the news out that this is an option," Jared Kennedy said. "We were just glad we found out about it."

Reach Barbara Isaacs at (859) 231-3576, 1-800-950-6397, ext. 3576, or bisaacs@herald-leader.com [mailto:bisaacs@herald-leader.com].

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

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Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.)

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