The Surprising Reason Freezing Embryos Creates More Social Kids, According To Research
Could freezing your eggs improve your future children's social lives?
Jewel Mitchell | Unsplash If you're planning on going the route of IVF with having babies, then there are some things you may want to consider. For starters, babies born from frozen embryos are more awesome than the "fresh" embryos.
While fresh embryos have a better chance of surviving once they're placed inside a woman, it's the frozen ones who tend to be warmer, more laidback, and even more social when they get older. Which, if you don't have the patience for a high-strung, ADD kid, might be your number one choice. Of course, storage for frozen embryos isn’t exactly cheap, but neither is the whole IVF process.
The study looked into not only the differences between frozen and fresh embryos, but also the similarities between IVF babies and those conceived naturally.
Both types of babies ended up being equally chatty and independent kids.
The real difference was in the frozen versus fresh embryos — they just ended up being completely different adults in their personalities.
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Although, according to Sheffield University fertility expert, Dr. Allan Pacey, they've yet to figure out the reason for the phenomenon, it does give food for thought if you have a preference for the type of child you'd like to have.
Some doctors attribute a frozen embryo's specific personality traits to the birth order, because frozen embryos are often the second baby, as they've been put on ice for a later time, and second children, in general, are more laid-back and social.
While other fertility experts think that there's something about the fact that an embryo has to be really strong to withstand being frozen, then surviving being thawed out, then being implanted in a woman's uterus.
Either way, researcher Lan-Feng Xing, of Zhejiang University in China, truly hopes that whatever the reason for the differences between frozen and fresh embryos, it will somehow erase any stigma of the babies being born from frozen ones as being "inferior."
But, honestly, who looks at any baby and regards it as inferior? "Oh, here is my second-born. Please forgive his flaws. As the product of a frozen embryo, he is inferior."
Personally, I think it really says something about a person who starts out as a chunk of ice. It's as if they're already awesome even before they reach the fetal age. They've conquered their early beginnings with flying colors and eventually burst onto the scene as if to say, "TA-DA! Here I am, world!"
That's a pretty impressive way to start a life, and there's nothing even remotely inferior about it.
Amanda Chatel has been a wellness and relationship journalist for over a decade. Her work has been featured in Glamour, Shape, Self, and other outlets.
