On Jul. 10, 2003, the University Fertility Consultants at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) announced they had successfully used frozen human eggs that resulted in the birth of a baby boy to a Forest Grove couple. It was the first successful birth that used this method on the West Coast, according to David Battaglia, Ph.D., who utilized a technique that was developed in Bologna, Italy.

Embryos and sperm have been successfully frozen for years, but egg cryopreservation is more difficult because the technique had not been refined enough, Battaglia said. He used a newer technique developed by Porcu that has dramatically improved egg survival after freezing. In addition, Battaglia used an established technique to fertilize the eggs known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in which a single sperm is injected into the egg cytoplasm, which dramatically improves fertilization rates with frozen eggs.

Battaglia will now develop a study protocol to prove that this can be accomplished again. Egg freezing has tremendous potential for certain women including younger women who want to wait to have a baby later in life, women about to undergo chemotherapy whose fertility may be affected, and women who want to donate eggs. And, of course, for a couple similar to the Pearsons who find that something goes wrong on the right day.