First Ecuadorian conceived ‘in vitro’ in a national clinic turns 30. What happened to his life in these years? This is his story | Ecuador | News

Riobamba

With three children and exercising the veterinary profession, Iván Arturo Padilla Núñez will arrive at the age of 30. It will be a special birthday, because on June 10 the three decades of the birth of the first test-tube baby in Ecuador will be remembered.

Iván is the fruit of that fertilization in vitro carried out in 1992 by the obstetrician-gynecologist Iván Valencia, at the Medical Center for Fertility and Sterility, in Quito.

The story of her birth is part of a second attempt to conceive by her parents, Carmen Núñez and Arturo Padilla. Originally from the province of Chimborazo, this couple had made a first attempt to in vitro in Bogotá (Colombia), but it did not work.

Carmen recalled that, after many unsuccessful visits to gynecologists in various places, she traveled to Bogotá, where she achieved a first pregnancy, but after two and a half months she miscarried.

After that failed attempt, the couple did not lose hope of having a child and made another attempt in the capital. For that year, the assisted technique was a success, because in the country the technology had not made any progress, said Dr. Valencia.

Ecuador’s first test tube baby

On the eve of the three decades of that episode, Iván Arturo Padilla Núñez met this weekend with his family and the doctor in Riobamba.

Dressed in a cowboy outfit, hat, sweater type jean With a lambswool collar and plaid shirt, Padilla reviewed his life in these years and recalled those days when his parents became the first couple to have a test tube baby.

He said he felt happy and grateful to his parents for having fought for conception and not fainting because he did not have a child naturally.

Iván commented that his life passed like that of any other child or young person of his time. He remembered that at some point someone made a bad joke about it, but never aggressively.

Being younger he tried to enlist in the Ecuadorian Air Force. He couldn’t do it, because of a problem with his vision. So his next option, because of his attachment to animals, was a career as a veterinarian.

Apart from practicing veterinary medicine, she manages her parents’ property in the province of Chimborazo. In this field he tries to obtain the best genetics with inseminations; as well as, to have more strength in the animals, he crossbreeds, with which he obtains good milk production in the cattle.