How long can embryos stay frozen?
On October 26, 2020, Tina Gibson gave birth to a baby girl named Molly. She was born from an embryo frozen for 27 years; the longest recorded human embryo frozen before birth.
According to The Washington Post, Molly Everette Gibson was born from a frozen embryo that had been stored in a cryogenic (ultra-cold) freezer since 1992. In 2012, the embryo was transferred to the National Embryo Donation Center, a nonprofit organization that stores frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF). The family decided they no longer needed the embryos so they could be transferred to adoptive families in the future.
The Gibsons had previously given birth to a baby girl, Emma Wren Gibson, from an embryo that had been frozen for 24 years. In February 2020, the family decided to adopt again, implanting Molly’s embryo into the uterus of 29-year-old Tina Gibson. When Molly’s embryo was frozen, Tina was only one year old.
How long can embryos stay frozen in theory?
“Indefinitely,” said Barry Behr, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University Medical Center.
Embryos are frozen in a process called cryopreservation, using liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Celsius, a temperature at which all biological activity stops. “If all biological activity has ceased, then you essentially hit the pause button and things should resume when you take the pause button off.”,” Behr said. So, an embryo that’s been on hold for decades could still develop naturally once it’s thawed and implanted.
Dr. Mary Ellen Pavone, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern Medicine in Illinois, agreed that embryos can “be pretty much stored indefinitely.” The field of embryology and freezing methods have both greatly advanced. When experts first started freezing embryos in the 1980s, embryos used to be frozen using a slow-freezing method, and are now frozen with a very fast-freezing technique called “vitrification,” she said.
In addition, the original freezing of embryos was in the Day 2 or Day 3 stage, which had only 2-8 cells. However, it is now popular to freeze embryos in the Blastocyst stage, which are stronger embryos with a higher number of cells. Furthermore, there is no difference in the health of babies born from frozen embryos when compared to babies born from fresh embryo transfers. However, there may be reports of slight differences in the mother’s endometrium instead.
Therefore, embryos can be frozen indefinitely and can result in normal pregnancy. However, embryos are generally not stored for long periods because patients often have a need to use such embryos.
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Pawonrat SungkhasawasZ
Embryologist
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Ref: How long can human embryos stay frozen? | Live Science
Baby born from 27-year-old embryo believed to have broken record set by her big sister | CNN
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