Latest news with #invitrofertilization
CTV News
01-08-2025
- Health
- CTV News
An Ohio couple welcomes a baby boy from a nearly 31-year-old frozen embryo
About two per cent of U.S. births are the result of in vitro fertilization, even less come from donated embryos. A baby boy born last week to an Ohio couple developed from an embryo that had been frozen for more than 30 years in what is believed to be a record length of storage time before a birth. In what's known as embryo adoption, Linda and Tim Pierce used a handful of embryos donated in 1994 in their pursuit of having a child after fighting infertility for years. Their son was born Saturday from an embryo that had been in storage for 11,148 days, which the Pierces' doctor says sets a record. It's a concept that has been around since the 1990s but is gaining attraction as some fertility clinics and advocates, often Christian-centered, oppose discarding leftover embryos because of their belief that life begins at or around conception and that all embryos deserve to be treated like children who need a home. 'I felt all along that these three little hopes, these little embryos, deserved to live just like my daughter did,' said Linda Archerd, 62, who donated her embryos to the Pierces. Just about two per cent of births in the U.S. are the result of in vitro fertilization, and an even smaller fraction involve donated embryos. However, medical experts estimate about 1.5 million frozen embryos are currently being stored throughout the country, with many of those in limbo as parents wrestle with what to do with their leftover embryos created in IVF labs. Further complicating the topic is a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court decision that said that frozen embryos have the legal status of children. State leaders have since devised a temporary solution shielding clinics from liability stemming from that ruling, though questions linger about remaining embryos. Archerd says she turned to IVF in 1994. Back then, the ability to freeze, thaw and transfer embryos was making key progress and opening the door for hopeful parents to create more embryos and increase their chances of a successful transfer. She wound up with four embryos and initially hoped to use them all. But after the birth of her daughter, Archerd and her husband divorced, disrupting her timeline for having more children. As the years turned into decades, Archerd said she was wracked with guilt about what to do with the embryos as storage fees continued to rise. Eventually, she found Snowflakes, a division of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which offers open adoptions to donors. Archerd was also able to set preferences for what families would adopt her embryos. 'I wanted to be a part of this baby's life,' she said. 'And I wanted to know the adopting parents.' The process was tricky, requiring Archerd to contact her initial fertility doctor in Oregon and dig through paper records to get the proper documentation for the donation. The embryos then had to be shipped from Oregon to the Pierces' doctor in Tennessee. The clinic, Rejoice Fertility in Knoxville, refuses to discard frozen embryos and has become known for handling embryos stored in outdated and older containers. Of the three donated embryos the Pierces received from Archerd, one didn't make the thaw. Two were transferred to Lindsey Pierce's womb, but just one successfully implanted. According to Dr. John David Gordon, the transfer of the nearly 31-year-old embryo marks the longest-frozen embryo to result in a live birth. He would know, Gordon says his clinic assisted in the previous record, when Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway were born from embryos frozen for 30 years, or 10,905 days. 'I think that these stories catch the imagination,' Gordon said. 'But I think they also provide a little bit of a cautionary tale to say: Why are these embryos sitting in storage? You know, why do we have this problem?' In a statement, Lindsey and Tim Pierce said the clinic's support was just what they needed. 'We didn't go into this thinking about records — we just wanted to have a baby,' Lindsey Pierce said. For Archerd, the donation process has been an emotional roller coaster. Relief that her embryos finally found a home, sadness it couldn't be with her and a little anxiety about what the future holds next, with possibly meeting the Pierces and the baby in person. 'I'm hoping that they're going to send pictures,' she said, noting that the parents have already sent several after the birth. 'I'd love to meet them some day. That would be a dream come true to meet — meet them and the baby.' Kimberlee Kruesi, The Associated Press
Reuters
16-07-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Three-person IVF technique spared children from inherited diseases, scientists say
July 16 (Reuters) - Eight children in the UK have been spared from devastating genetic diseases thanks to a new three-person in vitro fertilization technique, scientists from Newcastle University reported on Wednesday. The technique, which is banned in the United States, transfers pieces from inside the mother's fertilized egg - its nucleus, plus the nucleus of the father's sperm - into a healthy egg provided by an anonymous donor. The procedure prevents the transfer of mutated genes from inside the mother's mitochondria - the cells' energy factories - that could cause incurable and potentially fatal disorders. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA can affect multiple organs, particularly those that require high energy, such as the brain, liver, heart, muscles and kidneys. One of the eight children is now 2 years old, two are between ages 1 and 2, and five are infants. All were healthy at birth, with blood tests showing no or low levels of mitochondrial gene mutations, the scientists reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, opens new tab. All have made normal developmental progress, they said. The results "are the culmination of decades of work," not just on the scientific/technical challenges but also in ethical inquiry, public and patient engagement, law-making, drafting and execution of regulations, and establishing a system for monitoring and caring for the mothers and infants, reproductive medicine specialist Dr. Andy Greenfield of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the research, said in a statement. The researchers' "treasure trove of data" is likely to be the starting point of new avenues of investigation, Greenfield said. Often during IVF screening procedures, doctors can identify some low-risk eggs with very few mitochondrial gene mutations that are suitable for implantation. But sometimes all of the eggs' mitochondrial DNA carries mutations. In those cases, using the new technique, the UK doctors first fertilize the mother's egg with the father's sperm. Then they remove the fertilized egg's 'pronuclei' – that is, the nuclei of the egg and the sperm, which carry the DNA instructions from both parents for the baby's development, survival and reproduction. Next, they transfer the egg and sperm nuclei into a donated fertilized egg that has had its pronuclei removed. The donor egg will now begin to divide and develop with its healthy mitochondria and the nuclear DNA from the mother's egg and the father's sperm. This process, detailed in a second paper in the journal, opens new tab, 'essentially replaces the faulty mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) with healthy mtDNA from the donor,' senior researcher Mary Herbert, professor of reproductive biology at Newcastle, said at a press briefing. Blood levels of mtDNA mutations were 95% to 100% lower in six newborns, and 77% to 88% lower in two others, compared to levels of the same variants in their mothers, the researchers reported in a second paper. "These data indicate that pronuclear transfer was effective in reducing transmission of mtDNA disease," they said. The procedure was tested in 22 women whose babies were likely to inherit such genes. In addition to the eight women who delivered the children described in this report, another one of the 22 is currently pregnant. Seven of the eight pregnancies were uneventful; in one case, a pregnant woman had blood tests showing high lipid levels. There have been no miscarriages. The authors of the current reports have also tried transplanting the nucleus of a mother's unfertilized egg into a donor egg and then fertilizing the donor egg afterward, but they believe their new approach may more reliably prevent transmission of the genetic disorders. In 2015, the UK became the first country in the world to legalize research into mitochondrial donation treatment in humans. That same year in the United States, pronuclear transfer was effectively banned for human use by a congressional appropriations bill that prohibited the Food and Drug Administration from using funds to consider the use of "heritable genetic modification".
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
YMCA branch will settle with VP who said she was fired for pursuing IVF
This story was originally published on HR Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily HR Dive newsletter. The YMCA of Waukesha, Wisconsin, will settle a former vice president of operation's claims that she was wrongfully fired due to her pursuit of in vitro fertilization treatment, according to court documents filed June 13 (Rehm v. YMCA of Greater Waukesha Inc.). The decision to settle followed U.S. District Court Judge Pamela Pepper's order allowing the employee's wrongful termination claim to proceed last December. The judge dismissed four other claims, including charges of unequal pay and retaliation in violation of both the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The terms of the settlement agreement have not yet been released but both parties said in a court document 'they have a good faith belief that this case is resolved.' The dispute in the case centered on whether YMCA's reasons for firing the VP were pretextual. The CEO of the YMCA branch asserted the VP demonstrated a lack of leadership and disregard for her job duties, according to the judge's December order, telling her at her termination that she was 'not performing at a level commensurate with a vice president of an organization.' He also contended that staff had complained about her poor work ethic and lack of accountability. However, the worker said she had consistently received positive feedback on her performance and no feedback suggesting she needed to improve. She also said the CEO could not point to specific incidents of lackluster job performance — and pointed out that she received an incentive bonus just a few months before her firing. The worker also argued that the alleged performance issues were manufactured as pretext and occurred more than two years before her firing, and that YMCA could not provide a consistent explanation for who decided to fire her. Finally, the employee pointed to comments the CEO made to a team with multiple pregnant employees, including that he was 'going to have to change the water in here' and that no one else was 'allowed to get pregnant.' 'Although a factfinder could conclude that the defendant's reasons for firing the plaintiff were legitimate, the plaintiff has shown that there is reason to question [the CEO's] justifications,' Pepper found. She found that given the timing of the CEO's comments on worker pregnancies, the timing of performance issue documentation beginning just days after she announced she was starting IVF and comments from the CEO during that conversation, there was a genuine issue of material fact concerning the motivation for the firing. Employers and HR professionals should document performance issues, compliance experts have advised, but doing so is not always a silver bullet. The timing of such documentation — and how closely it aligns with other events — can complicate an employer's defense. In a similar case, for example, a terminated worker alleged her company, Santander Consumer USA, began aggressively documenting her deficiencies shortly after she announced she was pregnant. The worker and Santander reached a settlement on that case in late February, according to court documents. Recommended Reading EEOC targets universities for antisemitic treatment of staff Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
