Embryo Donation Program

If you have completed your family through IVF, have extra embryos in storage, and you have the desire to help people, then please contact us to learn more about our embryo donation program. PREG offers the ability for current patients to donate their embryos to PREG’s embryo donation program. We will then match the donated embryos to other PREG patients who will be the unidentified (“anonymous”) recipients of the donated embryos. The identity of the donating patients will not be disclosed to the embryo recipients. Please call us to learn more about this unidentified (“anonymous”) embryo donation program. We will be happy to schedule you for an appointment with one of our physicians to further discuss the option of embryo donation. Alternatively, if you are currently one of our patients you may click on the links below, complete the required forms and return the forms by mail or fax.

• • ASRM Third Party Reproduction (Sperm, Egg, Embryo Donation, and Surrogacy): A Guide for Patients (.pdf)

Embryo Donation

Embryo donation is a procedure that enables embryos either that were created by couples undergoing fertility treatment, or that were created from donor sperm and donor eggs to be transferred to infertile patients in order to achieve a pregnancy. Indications for embryo donation include untreatable infertility that involves both partners, untreatable infertility in a single woman, recurrent pregnancy loss thought to be related to embryonic factors, and genetic disorders affecting one or both partners. The process of embryo donation requires that the recipient couple undergo the appropriate medical and psychological screening recommended for all gamete donor cycles. In addition, the female partner undergoes an evaluation of her uterine cavity and then her endometrium is prepared with estrogen and progesterone in anticipation of an embryo transfer.

In the United States, embryo donation must meet established FDA guidelines for screening of the donors. In the case of embryos that have been created previously, the FDA recommends-but does not require-that the couple who created these embryos undergo the requisite screening and testing required of all egg and sperm donors. For embryos that are created specifically for donation, the sperm donor and egg donor must be screened and tested as any other sperm and egg donors who are not intimate sexual partners of the recipients.

What differentiates embryo donation from either egg or sperm donation is that the child born to the couple will have no genetic link with them, yet all parties will benefit from the biological relationship they share through the commitment the parents have made to gestate this embryo. Of paramount importance is that informed consent and counseling be provided to both the donors of the embryos and the recipient couple to address all of the potential issues embryo donation might raise. In addition, due to the absence of explicit laws regarding embryo donation, couples should consult with legal counsel regarding the necessity of a pre-donation agreement as well as to seek a judicial determination or recognition of parentage.

Success rates with embryo donation depend on the quality of the embryos that were frozen, the age of the woman who provided the eggs, and the number of embryos transferred. There are no national statistics on the success of embryo donation due to the limited number of embryo donation cases nationwide.

PREG will perform the evaluation for a patient desiring a frozen embryo transfer (FET) and will perform the FET treatment cycle for patients desiring to be a recipient of embryo donation. If the frozen embryos are coming from an outside organization, they must meet certain criteria/testing as regulated by the FDA and we must approve the shipment of embryos to our lab.

We recommend making an initial consultation with one of our physicians to discuss embryo donation prior to contacting any agency or organization, and beginning the process to receive donated embryos.