IVF frozen embryos result in bigger babies, full term

IVF babies born from frozen embryos are heavier and result in longer pregnancies than those born from fresh embryos, research suggests.

Freezing embryos enables couples to have several cycles of IVF with eggs collected during one round of treatment.

By putting some on ice, couples can use up their fresh embryos before moving on to frozen ones at a later date.

Today’s research suggests frozen embryo transfer in IVF may lead to healthier babies, owing to a good birth weight and ability for the foetus to stay the full course of pregnancy.

Presented at the British Fertility Society Annual Meeting in Leeds, the study involved measuring the weight and length of gestation for 384 babies born after fresh embryo transfer and 108 born after frozen embryo transfer.

All the babies were single births, with no twin or triplet pregnancies included.

Babies born from frozen embryos were, on average, 253g heavier than those born from fresh, the results showed.

The proportion of low birth weight babies (weighing less than 2.5kg) was also lower in this group (3.7 per cent compared with 10.7 per cent for babies born from fresh embryos).