Case Report: Successful delivery in a 44-year-old woman using vitrified human oocytes taken from the woman at 41 years of age

Successful pregnancies and deliveries are rare in women over 40 years of age. To date, no case report has been published about a successful delivery in a woman over 40 years of age using vitrified oocytes obtained through social egg freezing from a woman over 40 years of age. Here we report a case of a successful live birth from a 44-year-old woman using vitrified oocytes taken from the woman at 41 years of age; the patient used the technique for social reasons. The 44-year-old patient delivered a 2534 g female infant by Caesarean section in the 37th week of pregnancy. The female infant’s Apgar scores were 9 at 1 min and 9 at 5 min. The female infant exhibited no anomalies and is developing normally under the close surveillance of pediatricians. However, the concept of social egg freezing has medical, ethical and social problems. Furthermore, the rate of live births differs among clinics and/or hospitals due to variations in the vitrification and warming techniques used. Therefore, information from individual clinics and/or hospitals about the risks, the rates of successful live births and the cost of social egg freezing should be provided to patients to aid in the patient’s decision-making process.