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SINGAPORE: A Singapore-trained doctor has performed a medical first.
Professor Tan Seang Lin from McGill University has helped a Canadian mother freeze her eggs for her seven-year-old daughter.
She is doing so to ensure that her daughter can give birth, should her genetic disorder make her infertile as an adult.
Melanie Boivin, a 35-year-old lawyer from Montreal, is the mother of three children, including Flavie, who was born with a genetic disorder called Turner syndrome, which can lead to premature menopause and infertility, Professor Tan said.
Turner syndrome often leaves women incapable of producing eggs, but with healthy wombs can give birth through donated eggs.
"I was touched by her case because, in her own words, 'a mother should always do her best to help her children'. If her daughter had a kidney problem and she had to give a kidney, she would have done it too."
Professor Tan said this was the first such "mother-daughter egg donation" in the world.
He added that such egg-freezing procedures have been used for cancer patients at risk of menopause when they undergo chemotherapy.
85 per cent of the eggs survive, and there is a 40 per cent chance of a live birth.
Professor Tan said McGill University Health Center's ethics committee gave its authorisation for the extraction of her eggs, which will be kept frozen for years to come.
He said the daughter was under no obligation to accept the eggs and "it's up to the daughter and her future partner to decide whether to use the eggs or not".
Professor Tan, who is now chairman of obstetrics and gynaecology at the university, graduated from the University of Singapore in 1977. - CNA/yy
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