In 1990, a woman and her husband underwent in vitro fertilization. It worked, and they gave birth to a healthy child. Having had their baby, the heterosexual couple donated their leftover fertilized eggs to anyone who might need them. About 20 years later, a 42-year-old woman gives birth to a healthy baby from those eggs that had been frozen for 20 years. Amazingly, there was no freezer burn!
Also amazingly, the previous longest time for preserved eggs to result in a viable pregnancy was 13 years. So this is a miracle child in several ways, from the fact that the mother carried it at age 42 to the fact that the eggs were nearly as old as I am. There are some amazing things they can do with fertility treatments these days. It’s mind-boggling the sorts of things they’re doing with human reproduction these days. Then again, I believe that everyone who wants a child should be allowed to do whatever possible to have that child, no matter what the steps might be.
Even with that said, some of these circumstances are a little strange for my taste. It doesn’t seem healthy to recycle antique eggs when I won’t eat any frozen food that’s over a year old.
Tags: weird science, unusual health news, frozen embryos, fertility, reproduction, baby born from 20-year-old frozen embryo, child born from 20-year-old frozen embryos, longest time between freezing and embryo use, unusual births
