Frozen Embryo!.. Before you start believing that the above title is a typo.
An American woman has given birth to a healthy baby girl from an embryo that was frozen a quarter century ago, in what hospital officials say may be a world record.
The baby, named Emma Wren Gibson, was born November 25, according to the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Knoxville, Tennessee, which revealed the birth announcement this week.
The embryo was conceived by another couple and frozen on October 14, 1992 and Tina Gibson, the woman who just gave birth to the baby was born in 1991. By some measures, this would make the embryo only about a year younger than her mother.
How is it possible?
During in vitrio fertilization (IVF) procedures sperm and an egg are extracted from the donors and then fertilized in a test tube. To offset the natural percentage of failure, many eggs are extracted but not all are ever used. Those extras are usually discarded, but some couples instead decide to freeze and donate them to infertile would-be parents.