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In 1992, Tina Gibson was almost 2 years old when a couple donated frozen embryos to a clinic in the Midwest.
In February 2020, one of those embryos was implanted in Ms Gibson, a schoolteacher in Knoxville, Tennessee, and in October she gave birth to a 6-pound, 13-ounce baby. Mrs. Gibson and her husband, Ben, called her Molly.
Birth broke the record for the longest frozen embryo to result in a live birth. That record, according to the National Embryo Donation Center in Tennessee, was set in 2017, when Molly’s older sister Emma was born after an embryo from the same donor couple was implanted in Ms. Gibson.
“We feel so blessed that God decided so long ago that this would be our family,” Ms. Gibson said. “I cannot imagine having any other children than these children. They’re just supposed to be ours.
Molly’s birth is the result of a process that began when an embryo was frozen on October 14, 1992. It was thawed in February 2020, the longest time an embryo had been frozen before leading to a live birth, said Martha Earl, director. from the University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library. She said she had searched medical journal articles and had “not found any published case in a medical journal of a live birth” of a frozen embryo for more than 20 years.
Molly’s birth shows that there is no limit to the length of time an embryo can be frozen, although freezing techniques have changed dramatically since the 1990s, said Dr Jeffrey Keenan, director of the National Embryo Donation Center, a Christian organization that made the transfers. .
“If the embryo survives thawing well, it should have as much chance as the newly created embryo,” he said. “No embryo is too old.”
Birth is an exciting development that will allow fertility physicians to reassure expectant parents that an embryo frozen for years, if not decades, will remain viable, said Dr Mindy S. Christianson, medical director of the Johns Hopkins Fertility Center.
“Patients often ask how long embryos can be frozen,” she says. “Often the answer is, ‘We don’t really know’. Now we can say with confidence that there have been babies born from frozen embryos for 27 years.
Dr Sigal Klipstein, director of the egg donation program at InVia Fertility Specialists in Chicago, said the time an embryo spends frozen is not an important data point for fertility physicians.
“The problem is the quality of the embryo at the time of freezing,” she said. “If it is a good quality embryo, we expect that there will be a good quality embryo left when it is frozen and when it is thawed.”
Ms Gibson said she and her husband decided to use donated embryos after seeing a report on a woman who tried to get pregnant in the same way.
The Gibsons had struggled for five years to adopt a child, but the process was fraught with pitfalls. They were reluctant to continue with in vitro fertilization because Ben, 36, has cystic fibrosis and Tina, 29, learned she was a carrier. Ms Gibson said they feared passing the disease on to their children.
When they began to search for donor embryos at the donation center, they learned about the age of the donor parents, their physical characteristics, their educational and medical backgrounds, and even their hobbies. The ages of the embryos were not listed.
Ms Gibson said she was nervous about it at first, but felt better after Dr Keenan told her it wouldn’t make any difference to the health of the babies.
“Both pregnancies went well,” she says. “Both are perfectly healthy.” The age of the embryos now makes the couple laugh.
“We always joke that Emma is an old soul,” Ms. Gibson said. “She’s doing something and I’ll say, ‘It’s the’ 90s baby coming out in you. ‘
Dr Keenan said his center had nearly 1,000 live births from donated embryos, a much cheaper process than IVF.
After using the process to form their own family, birth parents with fertilized eggs have several options: give them to others, throw them away, donate them for medical research, or keep them frozen indefinitely.
Dr Christianson said in her practice she has seen an increase in the number of people donating embryos, a trend she says is linked to the increase in embryos that people do not need for IVF.
In general, people still feel ambivalent about the idea of donating their embryos, knowing that other families can raise their biological children, she said.
“It is definitely not the most common choice,” said Dr. Christianson.
Dr Klipstein said that in his office, less than 1% of patients have chosen to donate their remaining embryos.
“It’s very different from donating embryos once you have your own children,” said Dr Klipstein. “You still have that connection to the genetic material that you created.”
Many donors seek an ongoing relationship with the people who will receive their embryos, Dr Keenan said.
Shane and Tiffany Ogle have decided to donate their four remaining embryos after having their twin through IVF. One of these embryos led to the live birth of a girl about three years ago. They visit the child once or twice a year and receive regular updates from his parents.
The embryo donation was “a no-brainer,” said Tiffany Ogle, 40, who lives in Maryville, Tennessee, 18 miles south of Knoxville.
“When we found out it was an option, it felt like a gift we could give to another couple,” she said. “We understood from the start that this was not our child. It’s our DNA, but it’s someone else’s family and child.
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