WhyPeopleChooseEmbryoDonationQ: What are the most common reasons people choose embryo donation (sometimes called embryo adoption)?

A: Many families who have failed IVF, even multiple times, have successfully achieved pregnancy and childbirth using donated embryos. There are several reasons parents who strongly desire the experience of pregnancy and childbirth choose to use embryos donated from another infertility patient with remaining frozen embryos from their IVF cycle.

  1. For many couples facing infertility, the cause is linked to either sperm or egg quality. When using donated embryos the woman needs only the ability for the embryo to implant in her uterus and to carry a pregnancy to term.
  2. Usually children have already been born to the couple donating the embryos, which is an indication of the embryo viability.
  3. Using embryos donated by another infertility patient is very often less expensive than other forms of third party reproduction.
  4. Embryo donation maintains neutrality between the couple regarding the genetic connection to the child, which is important for some couples.
  5. Some embryo donation programs will place all of the embryos the donor has with one family, allowing them to have multiple Frozen Embryo Transfers and potentially genetically related siblings.
  6. If it is important for either the donating or receiving families, it is possible to find an embryo donation program that facilitates sharing information between the families. These programs often follow the adoption model for embryo donation, thus have familiarity with and the infrastructure to support openness. Research supports that information on their genetics is important to many children/adults when they reach adolescence and adulthood.

Answer by Snowflakes Embryo Adoption