At the start of 2020, a US citizen gave birth to a baby girl from a frozen embryo in 1992. This news further confirms the idea that an embryo is "never too old". In addition, this woman broke her own record from 2017, established with another newborn also from an old embryo.
In the United States, Tina Gibson was herself a baby when a couple in 1992 chose to freeze their embryos in a clinic in the Midwest. As the New York Times explains in an article from December 3, 2020, doctors implanted one of these embryos in Tina Gibson's womb in February. Nine months later, the latter gave birth to Molly, a healthy baby girl.
You should know that Tina Gibson has just broken her own record, with this embryo frozen for 27 years. In 2017, the mother had already given birth to Emma, Molly's big sister, after receiving a embryo that was a little less "old" (24 years). Moreover, it was an embryo from the same donor couple.
Martha Earl, director of the Preston Medical Library at the University of Tennessee, confirmed this record . The person concerned says that she has studied numerous scientific articles and has found no other births after an embryo donation dating back more than two decades.
”If an embryo survives thawing well, it should have as much luck as a new embryo ” said Dr. Jeffrey Keenan, director of the National Embryo Donation Center.
Thus, thinking that an embryo may be too old is a mistake. Indeed, there doesn't seem to be a "deadline" and this latest birth further supports that idea. For Dr. Mindy S. Christianson, medical director of the Johns Hopkins Fertility Center, this birth is good news for doctors fertility experts. This allows them to have more perspective in order to reassure their future patients hoping to have a child in this way.
Let's also mention Dr. Sigal Klipstein, director of the egg donation program in Chicago. The person concerned recalls that the freezing period is not so important. On the other hand, this importance lies at the level of quality of the latter at the time of freezing. In other words, if the quality is there, there is no reason for it to change.
