Embryo donation is a procedure that enables embryos (created by people going through a fertility treatment or created from sperm donors and egg donors) to be transferred to intended parents so that pregnancy is achieved.
More often than not, it is the people who have gone through a cycle of IVF and have embryos leftover who donate their embryos to people in need. They may have cryopreserved or frozen embryos that they do not want to use. Although they can keep them in storage, this option comes with an annual cost. Their other options include donating their embryos for research purposes, donating them to another intended parent, or discarding them.
Due to the money, effort, and time it takes to create embryos, many intended parents prefer to donate them to other intended parents so that they may also have a chance to build a family. This article is all about embryo donation to an intended parent, what it entails, and the steps intended parents can take to adopt an embryo.
What Does Embryo Donation Entail?
Embryo donation is a type of third-party reproduction process that enables couples to become parents and experience pregnancy. Due to the advanced nature of IVF technology, when an individual undergoes this fertility treatment, they often have many embryos left over. Nowadays, it takes just a single embryo transfer for pregnancy to occur; the transfer of just one embryo at a time can dramatically decrease a person’s chance of conceiving more than one child at one time. In turn, it also reduces the risk of complications that are associated with high-risk births and pregnancies.
When researching embryo donations, you may have come across the term “snowflake adoption.” This term is used to encourage people to adopt remaining frozen embryos from in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment undertaken by intended parents. Snowflake children are the result of these adoptions. Intended parents donate these leftover cryopreserved embryos because they do not intend to use them. Ownership is officially transferred to the recipient from the donor during an embryo adoption.
How Much Does Embryo Donation Cost?
Embryo donations can cost up to $15,000. Intended parents who use an agency to find an embryo will also have to pay for matching services, agency fees, legal fees, and the shipment of embryos from the place they were created. Furthermore, intended parents should expect a fee for the embryo transfer, which can cost up to $8,000.
Six Steps to Adopting an Embryo
Intended parents who wish to proceed with adopting an embryo can expect to complete six key steps:
- Intended parents need to locate donor embryos. These embryos can be sourced from people you know, such as a relative or a close friend, or they can be located through a fertility clinic.
- To adopt an embryo, you need to seek your doctor’s approval. Your doctor needs to review the details, such as the medical history, and they need to assess all risk factors. You can also make a formal request for all embryo and medical records so that you have accurate and up-to-date information.
- Once you have located a donor embryo and sought your doctor’s approval, it is time to sign the contract. It may seem formal but in a legal sense, adopting an embryo is treated as a transfer of property. The terms of the contract can vary depending on each independent situation. In some areas, the adoption can be settled in court.
- Step 4 is all about the transportation of the embryos from the clinic where the frozen embryos are stored to your fertility clinic.
- To ensure you are ready for the transfer, you need to prepare your body. Your doctor will begin your treatment plan as soon as the embryos arrive so that you are physically prepared for the transfer.
- The final step is the transference of a frozen embryo. The transfer will be completed at your fertility clinic. Once it is complete, you will need to wait around 14 days before you can take a pregnancy test to find out if the process has been successful.
What is the Success Rate of Embryo Donation?
The success rate of becoming pregnant after an embryo transfer can vary depending on the type of program you choose and the fertility clinic that you attend. Studies have suggested that the number of donated frozen embryo transfers, pregnancy rates, and live birth rates per transfer have increased in the United States. This study shows that the respective clinical pregnancy rate, live birth rate per transfer, and miscarriage rate per pregnancy were 53.4 percent, 43.5 percent, and 17.4 percent between 2016 and 2019 for all donated frozen embryo transfers. Success rates for embryo donations are higher than IVF implantation success rates due to the preimplantation genetic testing that adopted or donated embryos must undergo.
Egg Donation: An Alternative to Embryo Donation
As opposed to an embryo donation where leftover embryos from treatment are donated, an egg donation is when a fertile woman donates one of her eggs to an infertile woman so that she can use it in a fertility treatment such as IVF. The recipient is not biologically related to the baby but is recorded as the birth parent on official records.
Egg donation treatments have a high success rate, which is one of the reasons behind their popularity. ConceiveAbilities is an agency that specializes in egg donation and surrogacy. If egg donation sounds like the right option for you, don’t hesitate to get in touch—ConceiveAbilities has a wealth of knowledge to help you make the right decision for you, and resources that can help guide you on your journey.
To become an egg donor, one must fulfill certain requirements as outlined by the egg donation agency. A few important medical requirements include having regular monthly periods, being healthy (both physically and emotionally), and having a willingness to undergo psychological and medical evaluations.
In addition, egg donors must not have any reproductive disorders and they must not be nicotine users, drug users, vape users, or smokers. Personal qualifications include a healthy BMI, being within a certain age group, and being a resident or a citizen of the United States.
