John K. Jain and Richard J. Paulson

In 2005, fertility specialists from the Keck School of Medicine of USC recorded America’s first pregnancy of triplets resulting from cryo-preserved oocytes, or frozen eggs. Furthermore, it was the first triplet pregnancy anywhere using a woman’s own frozen eggs. (The only other triplet pregnancy from frozen eggs, achieved in Buenos Aires in 1998, had involved donor eggs.)

Los Angeles resident Silvia Fajardo, 31, welcomed her fraternal triplets last spring. She and husband Eric Alberto Urzua were part of a unique USC trial aimed at evaluating the efficiency of egg freezing. Patients in the study agreed to have all their eggs frozen. Once harvested, the oocytes are kept in liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees Celsius); then they are thawed, inseminated and placed back in the patient’s uterus.

The technology is intended for women who face the prospect of becoming infertile and wish to preserve the option of conceiving a child later. “Many young women diagnosed with cancer lose their fertility through cancer treatment,” says Keck School obstetrician and lead researcher John K. Jain. “Some women also undergo early menopause. This gives them the chance to still have a family. When a woman wants to save her eggs for the future, that’s her genetic legacy.”

For decades physicians have used frozen sperm and frozen embryos to help couples achieve pregnancy, but the practice of cryopreserving unfertilized eggs remains relatively rare, with only about 200 babies born worldwide through this technique. The first pregnancy from a frozen egg was reported in 1986.

Over the years, USC fertility doctors have laid claim to several other firsts: In 1986, they implanted America’s first baby born after embryo freezing; and in 1987, they reported the first triplet pregnancy after frozen embryo transfer.

Jain and Keck School co-investigator Richard J. Paulson set another record in October 2005 when they charted an unprecedented 63 percent pregnancy success rate in their first clinical trial using frozen eggs.

“While our sample is small [five out of the first eight study participants conceived] and our data are still preliminary,” Paulson says, “we are nonetheless highly optimistic that this high rate of success will continue in the future.”