The Founding Papers · FP·10 · 1986
1986: Frozen eggs begin a pregnancy
C. Chen froze and thawed human eggs, fertilised them, and achieved a twin pregnancy.
The story
Freezing embryos was one thing. Freezing the egg itself was far harder. In this paper a single author reported the first pregnancy from eggs that had been frozen and thawed.
Most of the forty eggs survived, and most of those could still be fertilised. It opened a door that, decades later, would let many women preserve their fertility for the future.
“The first successful attempt at deep freezing and thawing of the human oocyte is reported. A twin pregnancy was achieved after insemination and replacement in utero.”From the paper's abstract
The paper
Pregnancy after Human Oocyte Cryopreservation
C. Chen
The Lancet 1986;1(8486):884 to 886. Published 19 April 1986. Read the paper.
How we know
Abstract read in PubMed, 6 October 2026. The journal could not be opened.
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