A 58-year-old post-menopausal woman gave birth last year after successful in vitro fertilization treatment, National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) said on Sunday.
It was not made clear whether the woman was the oldest in Taiwan to be artificially fertilized.
CHANGE OF HEART
Yang Yu-shih (楊友仕), a doctor who specializes in reproductive endocrinology infertility treatment, said the woman had not planned to have a child when she was younger, but later decided she wanted one.
By that time she was post-menopausal, but the hospital gave her hormone treatment and then carefully carried out in vitro fertilization, Yang said.
Yang said the hospital had downplayed the successful treatment in an effort to avoid encouraging people to have children at an advanced age.
Women over the age of 40 who are seeking fertility treatment usually need to have ovaries donated due to the degeneration of their own reproductive system, he said.
Fertility in women generally begins to decrease after they reach the age of 35, Yang said, adding that the older a woman gets the greater the risk of premature births and/or birth defects.
The average age of a woman who is artificially inseminated at the hospital is between 37 and 38 years of age, Yang said.
According to the Bureau of Health Promotion, 7,259 couples in Taiwan received artificial reproduction treatment in 2009. Of that number, 3,540 of the women — or 48.8 percent — were 35 or over.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS