Late parenting: The 46-year-old Tzvia agreed to a medical trial of ovarian freezing, because she fell ill with cancer at the age of 25. Pieces of her deer’s ovary were deep frozen for two decades, then removed and transplanted back into her body. Against all odds, the fertilization took place and baby Ascher was born to life. Although her deer was older, her ovary was 20 years younger than her.
Ascher is considered a world miracle, as the first pioneer to enter the medical history books in the world. Zvia agreed to the experiment when there was still a project that was only tested on mice. “It really gave me hope that I would have continuity,” said the mother. Professor Ariel Rebel, who took care of the fertilization process of the deer, says: “A baby girl was born from some kind of technology that was in the possession of a medical experiment.”
In 1982, the first test-tube baby was born in Israel, and since then the number of fertility treatments grew and grew, becoming over the years about 50 thousand fertility treatments per year. Private clinics perform about 50 fertilizations a day, and the medical teams are unable to cope with the load. Employees in the public institution add shifts in private fertility laboratories and therefore more mistakes happen, such as the story of the exchange of embryos in Assuta.
Karin waited four years and underwent fertility treatment to have her son. “Treatments, injections, meeting with a specialist doctor – every month it’s around three to four thousand shekels,” she said. Despite the state’s participation in the expenses of private medicine and the basket of medicines, the amount of economic expenses outweighs what the state provides. “We want more but think about the difficulties and get ready,” Karin’s husband added.
In Shaare Zedek Hospital there are containers that can hold between 30-25 thousand embryos. In addition, the laboratory has become a warehouse of frozen embryos and every 500 frozen embryos from previous years are unclaimed. Today, the number is estimated at one million frozen embryos, which by law, after five years, are supposed to be destroyed, if the couple does not want them or does not pay – but the Ministry of Health and the medical teams do not have the courage to destroy them.