Britain’s first babies conceived with a new infertility treatment that does not require powerful hormonal drugs have been born to a couple in Oxford.

The healthy twins, a boy and girl, were delivered at the John Radcliffe Hospital on October 18, paving the way for more couples to benefit from a technique that offers a safer, cheaper and quicker alternative to IVF.

Both babies were conceived using eggs that were removed from their mother’s ovaries while still undeveloped and then matured artificially in the laboratory before being fertilised with their father’s sperm.

The procedure, known as in-vitro maturation or IVM, allows infertile couples to conceive without giving the woman fertility drugs to stimulate her ovaries before collecting the eggs.

While about 400 babies have been born worldwide using IVM, the twins, whose parents wish to remain anonymous, are the first to be born by the procedure in Britain. The John Radcliffe Oxford Fertility Unit was awarded the first licence to offer the treatment in January.

The boy, who was delivered at 10.46am, weighed 6lb 11oz, and his sister, who arrived a minute later, weighed 5lb 14oz.

The procedure offers hope to thousands of British women who are infertile but who cannot take the hormonal drugs used in standard IVF, or who would prefer to avoid them because of possible side-effects.

It is particularly promising for the 30 to 40 per cent of female infertility patients whose problems stem from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a condition that affects 10 to 20 per cent of women. Such women are often advised against taking fertility drugs because they have a raised risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which can on rare occasions cause kidney damage or death. The syndrome occurs in one in 100 IVF cycles, but affects one in 10 cycles among women suffering from PCOS.

It could also help cancer patients to preserve their fertility before having chemotherapy that might make them sterile. These women sometimes cannot take hormonal drugs because they might worsen their tumours. They could take advantage of IVM by having immature eggs harvested, matured in the laboratory and frozen. In July, a Canadian team reported the birth of the world’s first baby conceived from a frozen IVM egg.

Tim Child, Senior Fellow in Reproductive Medicine at the University of Oxford and consultant gynaecologist at the Oxford Fertility Unit, said: “After years of research and development into IVM, and after many months of working with the twins’ parents, it has been hugely exciting to see them born. They are beautiful babies, the whole family is doing well.”

“The main advantage of IVM over IVF is improved safety for women,” he said. “Women with polycystic ovaries account for up to 40 per cent of all women needing fertility treatment. Those women have a one in ten chance of severe OHSS, which is a serious condition. IVM completely takes away that risk.”

The unit is currently offering IVM to women with PCOS who are aged under 37. In the longer term, it hopes to offer the technique more widely.

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