Birth after 30 years frozen in liquid nitrogen

"Twins were born in the USA who had been frozen as embryos around 30 years ago. They set a record with this.

 

After almost 30 years in chilled liquid nitrogen, Lydia and Timothy have made it to Oregon, America. The twins were born in Portland four weeks ago after Rachel and Philip Ridgeway adopted them as embryos earlier this year. Their journey to Oregon began in California in the spring of 1992. At that time, an anonymous couple who had previously hired an egg donor had the embryos frozen. After more than 15 years in the nitrogen tank of a Golden State fertility clinic, they came to the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Tennessee.

 

The religious facility in Knoxville has been procuring embryos since 2003. The advances in reproductive medicine, the group writes on its website, have produced more fertilized eggs in recent years than are later carried to term. The NEDC estimates that there are more than one million abandoned embryos in the United States.

 

As strictly religious Evangelical Christians, Rachel and Philip Ridgeway, who are already raising biological offspring Naomi, Joshua, Eliora and Miriam between the ages of two and eight, felt called to help “children in need”. The married, heterosexual couple, a requirement of the National Embryo Donation Center, reported to Knoxville, combed through the list of donors, and finally settled on embryos in the "special consideration" category.

 

"We wanted to take the embryos that had waited the longest," Philip Ridgeway, a 35-year-old software engineer, told ABC. At the end of February, five fertilized egg cells were removed from the nitrogen tank, three survived the thawing. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, about 80 percent of all embryos make the transition.

 

In early March, 29 years and ten months after freezing, Rachel Ridgeway planted the three seedlings. Two embryos developed. After an uneventful pregnancy, the thirty-four-year-old gave birth to Lydia and Timothy on October 31. Frozen for nearly 30 years, the twins broke American Molly Gibson's record at birth. The girl was born as an embryo in October 2020 after 27 years.”