30 years ago, in April 1992, an Oregon couple in the US set a record for giving birth to twins from processed eggs. This beats the record of Molly Gibson, who was born in 2020 from an egg that had been frozen for 27 years. Twins Rachel Ridgeway and Philip Ridgeway, born on October 31, are said to be the “world’s oldest babies”.
Twins Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway are the only babies born after long-term cryopreservation, according to the National Egg Donation Center. The baby girl Lydia weighed 2.5kg and Timothy weighed 2.9kg at birth, it said.
These are children born as a result of the donation of extra embryos to parents who have successfully fathered children through artificial insemination (IVF). A couple who gave birth through artificial insemination 30 years ago now donate eggs that were cryopreserved at 200 degrees below zero on April 22, 1992.
These eggs were preserved at the West Coast Fertility Laboratory until 2007. The couple later donated the eggs to the National Egg Donation Centre. Now, 15 years later, both Lydia and Timothy have come from those eggs.
The Ridgeway couple already have four children, ages 8, 6, 3 and almost 2. In this case, the couple who decided to conceive a child from a donated egg gave importance to the “special embryo”. That means they chose ova with difficulty finding recipients.
“We’re not looking for the world’s longest-processed eggs,” Ridgeway said. We searched for the long awaited lives. The heartwarming thing is that even though they are our youngest children, they are our oldest children. I was 5 years old when God gave life to Lydia and Timothy. Since then God has been saving these lives,” he says.
Harvard Medical School fertility specialist Ellen S. “The number of embryos created through IVF here is uncountable,” says Glaser. Their lives go through 5 categories.
1. Embryo can be discarded
2. The couple may decide to have more children
3. Embryos can be donated to science
4. Embryos can be donated to another person or couple
5. You can even decide not to make a decision,” he says.