[The first child from an ultrarapidly frozen embryo in Finland]

Transfers of frozen embryos are an important part of infertility treatments. In Finland, surplus embryos have been frozen over the years with the so-called slow method, which employs a programmable freezing device. In 1985 the first freezing trials with egg cells and embryos were initiated worldwide with the so-called vitrification method, in which the cells are actually not frozen but instead become glassified. This method, which has been found to be effective and gentle to the cells, is gradually gaining ground also in Finland. After thawing and transfer, a pregnancy and a healthy child developed from a blastocyst vitrified at our clinic.