BABY BORN FROM 27-YEAR-OLD FROZEN EMBRYO

In 1992, Tina Gibson was nearly 2 years old when a couple donated embryos that were frozen in a clinic in the Midwest.

In February 2020, one of those embryos was implanted in Gibson, an elementary school teacher in Knoxville, Tenn., and in October, she gave birth to a 6pound, 13-ounce baby. Gibson and her husband, Ben, named her Molly.

The birth broke the record for the longest-frozen embryo to result in a live birth. That record, according to the National Embryo Donation Center in Tennessee, was set in 2017, when Molly’s older sister, Emma, was born after an embryo from the same donor couple was implanted in Gibson.

“We feel so blessed that God so long ago decided this was going to be our family,” Gibson said. “I can’t imagine having any other kids but these kids. They’re just meant to be ours.”

Molly’s birth is the result of a process that began when an embryo was frozen on Oct. 14, 1992. It was thawed in February 2020, the longest time an embryo had been frozen before it led to a live birth, said Martha Earl, director of the University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library. She said she had researched medical journal articles and had “found no published case in a medical journal of a live birth” of an embryo that had been frozen more than 20 years.

Molly’s birth shows that there is not a limited length of time an embryo can be frozen, even though freezing techniques have changed significantly since the 1990s, said Dr. Jeffrey Keenan, director of the National Embryo Donation Center, a Christian organization that performed the transfers.

“If the embryo survives the thaw well, it should have just as good a chance as freshly created embryo,” he said. “No embryo is too old.”

The birth is an exciting development that will allow fertility doctors to reassure prospective parents that an embryo frozen for years, even decades, will remain viable, said Dr. Mindy S. Christianson, medical director at the Johns Hopkins Fertility Center.

“Patients often ask how long can embryos be frozen,” she said. “Often, the answer is, ‘We don’t really know.’ Now we can say with confidence there have been babies born from embryos that have been frozen for 27 years.”