Embryo Donation
Embryo Donation
When patients of SDFC go through fertility treatments such as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), there are sometimes an excess of fertilized eggs (embryos) that are frozen and stored for later use. When these patients family needs have been met they are faced with a dilemma as to what to do with the remaining frozen embryos. We at SDFC offer them many choices, one of which is to donate these embryos to another couple.
We have started working with our patients to complete the necessary consents to release the embryos available for donation to another couple wishing to take possession of the embryos with the intent to become pregnant, and become a parent.
The donating couple releases all rights to these embryos and any life that is conceived from their donated embryos. The donating couples consents to necessary infectious disease screening and psychological counseling prior to the release. The donating couple completes a profile describing egg and sperm donors’ physical/genetic profile, and the embryology lab completes an assessment of the embryo quality.
Our patients who wish to receive donated embryos make those wishes known to SDFC and the embryo’s are matched to interested patients. Once legal documents, infectious disease screening, and psychological counseling are completed, the receiving patients then schedule a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET). The receiving women takes a small amount of medications to prepare her uterus for transfer and the donated embryos are then thawed by the embryologist on a pre-coordinated date and the FET is completed by one of our physicians.
Last updated:
January 25, 2006
Authors: William P. Hummel, MD and L. Michael Kettel, MD
Editor: Lisa Souza, RN