TOHOKU, Japan, April 10 (UPI) -- A woman in Japan who had undergone invitro fertilization was given an abortion after phyicians determined she was carrying conjoined twins.
The Mainichi Daily News reported Saturday it learned the woman's pregnancy was terminated in its 11th week, in the spring of 2003.
"Of the three ova returned to the woman's uterus, it was impossible to tell whether the impregnated ova that had gone through blastocyst culturing would have developed into an fetus," said a spokesman for the unidentified hospital. "We can't tell whether the IVF process had anything to do with this."
Three ova had been implanted in the woman's womb -- two eggs had been fertilized after three days of culturing, while the third had undergone blastocyst culturing. Blastocyst culturing is believed to improve the chances of a successful implantation.
IVF embryos are transferred into a woman's uterus three days after the egg retrieval, but blastocyst culturing takes six to seven days.
