Technology allows us to open doors that had not been imagined before and achieve dreams considered impossible. This is the case of Estefanía, Azahara and their son Derek Eloy, who was carried by his two mothers. Derek was born on Monday the 30th in the maternity ward of the Juaneda Miramar Hospital in Palma, weighing 3.3 kilos, and in perfect health. This is the first baby in Europe conceived by a couple made up of two women thanks to the INVOcell system, at Juaneda Fertility in the Balearic Islands.
The INVOcell is a device that works like a small incubator, but unlike those in the laboratory, it is placed under the cervix of one of the two women, which allows the development of the embryo during the first days to take place. inside the body instead of the laboratory. Once the embryo has developed, the INVOcell is extracted with it inside. The embryo is transferred to the couple's uterus.
The Invocell, as the CEFER Institute of Assisted Reproduction reports on its website, is a device into which the eggs and semen are introduced. Then, it is inserted into the woman's vagina. In this way, fertilization and the first stages of development occur inside the patient's body. In other words, the patient's vagina replaces the laboratory incubators.
Azahara, 27 years old, and Estefanía, 30, contacted the clinic in March 2023, nine months ago, and chose this system that has made them the first women in Europe to have simultaneously gestated their baby. The Clinic assures that this procedure provides great emotional value due to the fact that both women have shared the gestation of the embryo.
"When they offered me to have it in my cervix for five days, it was as if I had also had it inside," says Azahara in statements reported by IB3 Televisió. The two women recognize that this system is more satisfying for both of them from an emotional point of view.
The Juaneda Fertility team is made up of Felipe Gallego, director of the laboratory, Dr. Gustavo Carti and Dr. Miriam Mateos, gynecologists. They were the ones who explained the INVOcell technique and the possibilities it offered them to share the development of the embryo and the emotional value of being both pregnant mothers and they have been in charge of controlling the evolution of the pregnancy.
