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Welcome to IAAC's February 4, 2004 Broadcast Message.
Please note that the views expressed in this circulaton are the views of the authors and do not reflect the views of, and should not be attributed to, IAAC.
Contents:
1. ISRAEL, 'Time Warp' twins born from embryos frozen 12 years ago
ISRAEL, Health news February 01, 2004 The Sunday Times
"Time warp’" twins born from embryos frozen 12 years ago
A MOTHER has made medical history by giving birth to healthy twin boys from embryos that were frozen 12 years ago. The embryos, which remained safely in storage through the 1990s, are believed to be the world's oldest to have been implanted successfully in a womb.
When the woman, a secretary, underwent IVF treatment to conceive eight embryos, she was aged 27. Several of the embryos were then successfully implanted and she gave birth to two baby boys. These brothers were going to secondary school by the time their siblings were implanted and born. The mother is now aged 39.
Until now, the longest time between freezing and birth was believed to have been almost eight years. The new record means that couples can harvest healthy eggs earlier in their lives and then wait longer before having children. Some doctors believe that there may even be no biological limit to the length of time an embryo can be frozen. Dr Simon Fishel, director of the Centre for Assisted Reproduction (Care) at The Park hospital in Nottingham,
said: "It is possible that you could have a woman in her forties or fifties giving birth to a baby she conceived as a teenager."
The birth of what one doctor described as the "time warp twins" is due to be announced this week by Hadassah University hospital in Jerusalem. At the same time a report will appear in the journal Human Reproduction. The baby boys were born five months ago and each weighed 5½lb. Between freezing the embryos in 1992 and having them implanted, the mother bore one other child naturally. However, by the time she reached her late thirties she found she was unable to conceive naturally again.
Four of the frozen embryos were then implanted and three foetuses developed in the womb. Health risks to the mother and children forced doctors to abort one of them. “Because of the dangers of triplet birth there was a reduction to twins at 13 weeks,” said Dr Ariel Revel, an IVF specialist at the hospital.
As the babies were effectively the children of a 27-year-old, the tests for Down's syndrome and other genetic disorders that are normally carried out on older mothers in Israel were not performed. Although the technology may now enable the long-term storage of embryos, the practice is not allowed in Britain. Couples can initially store embryos for five years but then have to apply for a five-year extension. After that the embryos must be left to perish, given up for research or passed to another couple for immediate use.
Despite the success of the birth, experts say more research is needed into the possible long-term medical effects on children resulting from embryos being frozen. Dr Richard Kennedy, secretary of the British Fertility Society, said: "There has been some suggestion in animal experimentation of the possibility of illness and disease being more likely in the offspring of frozen embryos, but that has not been substantiated in humans. However, we do need to get more information about the health of the children who are the result of frozen embryos."
The previous record for long-term embryo storage is believed to have been held by a 44-year-old Californian woman who gave birth to a boy in 1998, using an embryo that had been frozen for more than seven years.
Dr Michael Vermesh, the infertility specialist who supervised the birth of that child, said: "He is now a healthy five-year-old boy who I see for checks once a year. He was subjected to more than the usual follow-ups by paediatricians because of the time lag — and all his cognitive functions are perfectly fine."
Paul Danon, spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children,
said: "The cryogenic process may lead to health problems. This is not a way for human beings to be treated as it is using human life in an abnormal way. The child becomes a victim of other people's wants."
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