Twin babies have been born to a couple from Oregon, US from embryos frozen over 30 years ago, shattering records for the longest-frozen embryos to result in a successful birth.
The embryos were frozen on April 22, 1992 at around -196 degrees celsius in liquid nitrogen. The twins were given birth by Rachel Ridgeway, a mother of four from Oregon on October 31.
The twin embryos were formed for an anonymous married couple using IVF. The man was in his 50s and the egg donor was 34 years old at the time.
From April 1992, the embryo rested in storage kept in liquid nitrogen at a fertility lab on the West Coast until 2007, when the couple who had made them, decided to donate them to the National Embryo Donation Centre in Knoxville Tennessee, hoping that other couples could use them.
The thaw and transfer to the uterus were performed by embryologists at the NEDC¡¯s partner clinic in Southeastern Fertility earlier this year.
Dr John David Gordon, who performed the embryo transfer said in a statement, "The decision... to adopt these embryos should reassure patients who wonder if anyone would be willing to adopt the embryos that they created 5, 10, 20 years ago. That answer is a resounding yes!"
Philip Ridgeway, the father said in a statement to CNN, "I was five years old when God gave life to Lydia and Timothy, and he's been preserving that life ever since. In a sense, they're our oldest children, even though they're our smallest children. There is something mind-boggling about it."
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