American Tina Gibson is 26 years old, and a few years ago she was sure that she would not have to experience bearing a child and natural childbirth. The fact is that her husband, Benjamin Gibson, has cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease that prevents him from having children.
Seven years ago, when the young people got married, they decided to take several adopted children. A couple of years ago, while on vacation, Tina was called by her father and said:
“I heard something on the news called embryo adoption. An embryo is placed in you and you carry a child."
The couple became interested in this option and after a few months turned to the National Embryo Donation Center in Tennessee. Until December 2016, the woman underwent a medical examination to determine whether her uterus would be able to receive an embryo. After removal of a small polyp and analysis of genetic information about donors in March 2017, an embryo suitable for all parameters was selected. At that moment, the director of the laboratory exclaimed: "This is a world record!"
The fact is that the selected embryo was frozen back in October 1992, when Gibson herself was only a year and a half. Having learned the age of the embryo, the parents were quite surprised.
“Do you understand that I'm only 25 myself? This embryo and I could be best friends!”, - said the future mother then. Today she, a 26-year-old woman, says: “I just wanted a baby. I didn't care if it was a world record or not."
On November 25, Tina gave birth to an absolutely healthy baby girl, who was named Emma. According to laboratory director Carol Sommerfeld, this is truly a unique case given the age of the embryo. It is believed that the previous record was held by a New York woman who received a frozen embryo for twenty years.
However, some experts doubt that this case is really a record. According to Sacher Merhi, a specialist at the New Hope reproductive center in New York, American companies are not required to report the age of the embryos to be transferred to regulators, but only the result of the procedure. “No one has these records,” he said.
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In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is an assisted reproductive technology that involves the fertilization of an egg with sperm outside the mother's body. For this, a woman, as a rule, first undergoes a course of hormonal injections to stimulate superovulation - the maturation of several eggs at once during one menstrual cycle. Then the ovarian follicles are punctured and the eggs are removed from the body. The man collects sperm for fertilization on his own.
Then the embryologist either adds a suspension containing sperm to the eggs in the nutrient medium, or injects the sperm into the egg manually using microsurgical instruments. The probability of successful fertilization is 60-70%. After 2-5 days, embryos are transferred into the uterine cavity of the patient or surrogate mother. Usually two embryos are transferred. According to order N 67 of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation of 2003, in order to avoid multiple pregnancies, it is not recommended to transfer more than four embryos.
The effectiveness of IVF is not very high - after the first procedure, only one out of three patients becomes pregnant.
Therefore, usually several procedures are necessary for a successful pregnancy. As a rule, they use previously fertilized and frozen embryos. In addition, before replanting the embryo, the doctor can carry out preimplantation diagnostics in order to select the most healthy and viable embryos.
Some reproductive health clinics, including in Russia, offer infertile couples to adopt unclaimed biological parents embryos (of course, with the written permission of biological parents). If the age and condition of potential adoptive parents meet the requirements of the clinic, then the embryo can be thawed and placed in the woman's uterine cavity. After birth, the child will legally be considered the natural child of the adoptive couple.
The National Center for Embryo Donation in the United States was founded in 2003. According to the center, up to 75% survive thawing. Successful pregnancy and childbirth can be expected in 49% of cases. Now, according to the center's estimates, due to their services, 686 babies have been born.