One pair of twins have broken the record by having been developed from the oldest know frozen embryos, which is how they were born. The embryos of Timothy and Lydia were frozen in April 1992. Rachel Ridgeway, who was born in 1995, is technically just three years older than her babies.
She and her husband, Philip, had four kids prior to seeking out fertility assistance that led to the birth of their twins. Born three decades after initially being frozen, they hold the record of being the longest-frozen embryos known to result in a live birth.
The biological parents of the babies have stayed anonymous. They donated their leftover embryos to the National Embryo Donation Center, a Christian nonprofit that only offers frozen embryo transfers to heterosexual couples who have been married for at least three years, after going through IVF.
"I was 5 years old when God gave life to these embryos," Philip shared, adding that it was even more amazing that Rachel was only 3 years old at the time of the infant's conception. "It's mind-blowing to think about. Pretty much everybody we've talked to has trouble wrapping their brain around it."
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The couple first looked into the NEDC in December 2019, noting that they needed help conceiving their three older children. They ended up conceiving their fourth child naturally. But they still wanted more kids.
"We've always thought, 'Let's have as many kids that God wants to give us,'" Philip explained "We thought, 'We're not done yet if that's God's will.'" So in December 2021, they selected the embryos from the "special consideration" section of the NEDC, which are embryos known to have been donated by parents with a history of certain genetic disorders.
"We found out that these kids are rarely looked at because many parents coming into the process are wondering what they could have," Rachel said. "It didn't really matter to us if they're considered perfect or not."
The twins' biological father died of ALS, the couple was told. "There's a possibility that it could be a genetic disorder that they may or may not have," Rachel said. "But we didn't care."
Three embryos were transferred total, and two developed. Rachel gave birth to the twins on October 31, 2022. The record-breaking delivery was verified by the University of Tennessee's Preston Medical Library. The previous record holder was a child named Molly Gibson, who was born in 2017 from an embryo that had been frozen for 24 years.
But Rachel and Philip didn't care about the potential publicity when it came to choosing their embryos. "Our plans for the twins is to make sure their adoption is a part of their story," Rachel shared. "We want to keep it as a normal part of their lives. They'll always know that they are adopted. We want to make sure that they know that embryo adoption makes them special."
