What happens to your unused embryos?

10th October 2013 in IVF

This information was correct at the time of publishing. It may not reflect our current practices, prices or regulations.

If you’ve had successful IVF or infertility treatment with us, and you have embryos remaining from your treatment, you have a number of options available to you.

These include:

Storing for future use:If you have multiple good quality embryos from your IVF treatment, you can decide to store them with us so you can use them in future if you wish to try for more children. This would involve a procedure called Frozen Embryo Replacement. It has the advantage that you do not need to undergo stimulation and egg recovery again, as you already have embryos. You can store your embryos for up to 10 years, this can extended in certain circumstances. We have good success rates for embryo replacement.

Embryo donation:If you do not wish to try for any more children, and have decided that your family is complete, you can choose to donate your good quality embryos to help other couples have a baby. Becoming an embryo donor involves counsellingto ensure you understand the implications of your donation, including the fact that the recipients of your donated embryos are the child’s legal parents if one is born, and that the child is entitled to ask for information about you when they turn 18.

Research:At Manchester Fertility we strive to develop new techniques and one of the ways we do this is by studying embryos, eggs and sperm. And so you may be asked if you wish to help our research by donating embryos which aren’tsuitable for your own treatment, and which would otherwise be discarded. These embryos are ones which do not develop properly to be suitable for transfer/pregnancy, and which would normally be disposed of. We would never ask you to donate embryos which are viable and which could be used for your own treatment or to help others.

If you have any questions about frozen embryo transfer, embryo donation or our research using donated eggs, embryos and sperm, please speak to our Patient Advisors or you can email us at [email protected]

Last updated: 20th January 2020