Science is capable of doing many wonderful things. Take Tina’s parenthood journey for example. Reproductive technology helped her become a mother with a donor embryo frozen when she’s barely one year of age.
Tina Gibson, 28, made the headlines when she gave birth to a baby with a donor embryo that was frozen back in Oct. 1992. The embryo was thawed after 27 years and inserted in Tina’s womb, and the result is a baby girl named Molly.
Tina and her husband, Ben, claimed the embryo is from the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) based in Knoxville.
“We didn’t realize until it made the news that it was kind of a big thing,” she said.
Molly’s successful implantation and delivery set a new record for the longest frozen embryo to be transferred and resulting in a live birth. The embryo was frozen for a total of 27 years, 3 months, and 27 days.
The earlier record was held by Molly’s older sister, Emma, who was born from a 24-year-old frozen embryo. Tina was also in the news with Emma’s birth back in November 2017.
In her interview with CNN, Tina said she was shocked to find out that the embryo was only one year younger than she was. She joked,
“This embryo and I could have been best friends. I just wanted a baby. I don’t care if it’s a world record or not.”
Tina and Ben had been trying to have children for many years. Ben has a condition known as cystic fibrosis – one of the common causes of male infertility – and the couple was worried they could transfer the condition to their baby. This was why they considered embryo adoption.
Molly and Emma are both genetically-related siblings. Tina said,
“The fact that we are holding these miracles, it’s unbelievable that God would just pour his blessings on us like that. We don’t deserve it, that’s for sure.“
WHAT IS EMBRYO DONATION?
According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), when couples undergo IVF due to infertility, they often have additional fertilized eggs (embryos) frozen and stored for later use. Some of those end up unused.
A lot of couples will have additional embryos to freeze and store after completing their IVF cycle. And the younger a female is when she’s undergoing IVF, the higher the odds of having top-quality eggs to freeze. Based on the number of babies a woman wants, she may have many eggs remaining after she has completed her family.
In certain cases, a donor embryo can be made using donor eggs and donor sperm solely for the aim of donation. And couples who don’t wish to use all their embryos can take any of the following routes:
- Donate the remaining embryos to research
- Keep them in their frozen state
- Thaw them and allowed them to be destroyed
- Donate them to an infertile couple
Most people choose to freeze their embryos – and keep them frozen. In fact, a study estimates that around 1 million frozen human embryos are presently stored in the United States alone.
Egg freezing technology is now more advanced, and IVF is more accessible to people who need it. These are the reasons why it’s more common to have excess embryos than what one needs to build his family.
Hence, embryo donation is getting more and more popular, and its success rates can be pretty impressive.
HOW CAN AN EMBRYO REMAIN FROZEN FOR 27 YEARS?
Embryos are preserved in liquid nitrogen, which is an effective means of freezing. Once frozen, embryos can be stored for many years since they are held stable by the freezing procedure.
In the past, embryos were frozen via a slow freezing process, which can lead to the formation of ice crystals and cause damage to the embryos. But nowadays, most programs utilize a fast-freezing process known as vitrification, in which embryos are cooled quickly, causing little-to-no harm.
However, embryos frozen using slow freezing methods are still capable of surviving the freezing and thawing process. When a donor embryo is adopted, it is just thawed and inserted into the woman’s womb, like any other embryo used for IVF.
Note: it’s uncommon for donor embryos to be frozen for this long. The embryo freezing protocols that were used 27 years ago are not that good, so there’s little chance that such an embryo would survive the freezing and thawing process. Proper screening is needed to find the viable embryo and avert the chances of miscarriage.
Coastal Fertility is delighted to see this lovely family grow with their miracle babies. we have helped many infertile couples become parents through IVF, donor eggs, frozen embryo transfer, etc.
If you are also considering frozen embryo transfer to build your family or have questions regarding infertility treatments, have a consultation with the leading fertility doctors.
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