Medical barriers are conquered every day, even in the world of embryo donation and adoption.
In an October 2010 Popular Science article, Mara Hvistendahl reports that a 42-year-old American woman gave birth to a baby boy, an event not terribly uncommon. The amazing part, the boy came from an embryo that had been cryo-preserved for the previous 20 years.
The unidentified mother of the record-breaking baby boy had been unsuccessfully attempting In Vitro Fertilization since she was 32-years-old. After receiving donated embryos from an anonymous couple, the woman underwent a successful Frozen Embryo Transfer, became pregnant and 9 months later gave birth to her son.
The embryo donor parents underwent IVF in 1990. After giving birth to a child, they then decided to cryo-preserve the remaining embryos for future donation.
Popular Science explains that the new born boy is a record setter and that no child had previously been born from an embryo frozen that long.
The successful birth of the 20 year old embryo opens new doors to the shelf life of frozen embryos and gives further potential to the older of the estimated 500,000 embryos in frozen storage.
For more information on the child born from the 20-year-old embryo visit popsci.com. To learn more about the process of embryo donation and adoption, please visit our website at EmbryoAdoption.org
(Please read comment policy before commenting)
Are there statistics on fertile couples who have had several children and continue to grow their family through embryo adoption?
ReplyDeleteWhile there may not be statistics specifically addressing this, I can tell you that many families who have had their own biological children and desire to continue building their families through embryo adoption have been successful at doing so.
DeleteOne thing to keep in mind is that many of the embryo adoption programs allow the genetic or donating family have a say in who adopts their embryos. Not every family will be comfortable placing with a family that has several biological children; others may be. You can find a list of embryo adoption agencies here: http://www.embryoadoption.org/adoption_agencies/embryo_adoption_services_matrix.cfm
Thank you for your interest in adopting embryos - we wish you all the best as you continue to build your family.