Your trusted source

You might think they’d be slightly chillier – but children born from frozen embryos turn out to be warmer and more sociable.

A study found that boys and girls born through IVF were just as chatty and independent as those whose mothers conceived naturally, the Daily Mail reports.

However, when the IVF children were divided into two groups, there was a clear difference.

Those created from embryos that were frozen before use were more sociable than those used when still ‘fresh.’

Normally in IVF, the embryos thought to have the best chance of making a woman pregnant are used in treatment just a few days after they are made in a dish.

Any that are left over can be frozen to allow her to try again if the treatment isn’t successful or if she wants to add to her family in a few years’ time.

One in every 50 babies born in Britain is the result of IVF – and many of those will have started out as frozen embryos.

Dr Allan Pacey, a Sheffield University fertility expert, said it isn’t clear what’s behind the phenomenon.

However, it may be that only the strongest embryos survive being frozen for several months before being thawed.

Dagan Wells, an Oxford University IVF doctor, said it is possible the delay caused by freezing gives the woman’s body - including the delicate lining of her womb - time to recover from the powerful drugs given at the start of IVF treatment to boost egg production.

Another possibility is that given that fresh embryos are normally used first and the frozen ones later, the ‘ice babies’ will be younger siblings.

Younger brothers and sisters are often more laid back and more sociable than the more responsible eldest child.

Professor Charles Kingsland, a consultant gynaecologist at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, said studies have suggested IVF babies are more sociable as adults.

This may be because they tend to be born to older parent and so spend more time in adult company from a young age.

He was sceptical that the finding is due to birth order.

He said: ‘In my experience, when the first child was born from a fresh embryo and the second from a frozen one, the second child tends to be less socially integrated and a bit more stroppy.’

Researcher Lan-Feng Xing, of Zhejiang University in China, studied 250 kindergarten-age children.

She hopes the finding will allay fears that children born from frozen embryos are somehow inferior.

She presented her research at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual conference in Honolulu.