Pregnancy and Delivery of a Healthy Baby Boy from a Patient Embryo Cryopreserved for Over 18 Years: A Case Report

Abstract

Cryopreservation offers semipermanent embryo storage. Although there have been various reports on effects of cryopreservation, there are few regarding preservation for 10 years or more. Here, we describe the delivery of a healthy child to a mother 51 years old, using an embryo cryopreserved for 18.3 years. The patient had four cleaved embryos cryopreserved when she was 32 years old. After more than 18 years, a Day-3, 10-cell stage embryo was transferred during a hormone replacement therapy cycle. The patient became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy boy (3,046 g). This case demonstrates the potential for live births at advanced maternal age by cryopreserving embryos at a young maternal age. To our knowledge, this is the longest cryopreservation period reported for a birth involving transfer of the mother’s own frozen embryo.