Many infertility patients end infertility treatment with frozen embryos remaining and must decide what to do with these unused leftover embryos.  Their options include: donating to another couple for family building, donating to research, thawing and discarding (including compassionate transfer), or continuing indefinite storage.  In the US, your options may be limited by state law.

Where to Start:

• Check out the following Creating a Family radio shows:

  • January 6, 2010: Donating Unused Frozen Embryos to Research

  • January 28, 2009: Embryo Donation/Adoption

  • May 21, 2008: Part 1 of What Should I Do With My Leftover Frozen Embryos

  • May 28, 2008: Part 2 of What Should I Do With My Leftover Frozen Embryos - The Family Building Option

  • June 4, 2008: Part 3 of What Should I Do With My Leftover Frozen Embryos - Donating for Research

•  Other Creating a Family Resources:

  • Embryo Donation/Adoption - Donation to another couple for Family Building

  • Laboratories and Tissue Banks that are accepting embryos for research

  • Top Ten Tips for Donating Spare Embryos to Research

  Back to Top

Resources for Exploring Options/General Information:

• State laws on embryo disposition are tracked by the National Conference of State Legislatures. This is dry legalese and may be more than what you are looking for, but if you’re trying to determine what is allowed in your state, this is a good place to start.

• "Parents Torn Over Fate of Frozen Embryos" by Denise Grady Published in the New York Times December 4, 2008 This one is a cut above the rest.

• A thorough article in The Tennessean "In TN and elsewhere, leftover embryos lie in frozen limbo" April 4, 2009 explores the options available to couples with left over embryos.

• Human Embryo Disposal Raises Ethical Issues: A Newsmaker Interview With Drs. Arthur L. Caplan and Andrea Gurmankin.  This article is dated (Aug. 2004) but the discussion and insight on the ethics of this decision are still relevant.

• "Agonizing Dilemma" A psychologist speaks about the complicated reasons couples are reluctant to donate or destroy stored embryos after their fertility treatments end.

• Great series of articles in the LA Times on embryo disposition. The first page article discuses the options and the legislative threats. There are separate articles in the Health section on donating to researchdonating to another couple. (Oct. 6, 2008)

  and

• Controversial Debate: What To Do With Unused Embryos? Aug. 2009 Very general and short discussion of your options.

 Back to Top

Research:

• “Fertility patients’ views about frozen embryo disposition: results of a multi-institutional U.S. survey”  Lead author Anne D. Lyerly Fertility and Sterility Sept. 2008. This is the largest survey (1000 patients) on what patients with leftover embryos want to do with them.  The majority preferred to donate to research.  Full text is at Duke, but a good article summarizing the research is at Medical News Today

• “Disposition of cryopreserved embryos by infertility patients desiring to discontinue storage” Lead author Susan Lanzendor.  Fertility and Sterility March 2009 59% preferred donating to scientific research, 38% discarding, and 3% donating to a known or anonymous person/couple for attempted pregnancy.  An abstract is available at Fertility & Sterility. 

• “How couples who have undergone in vitro fertilization decide what to do with surplus frozen embryos” Lead author Robert D. Nachtigall Fertility and Sterility December 2009 An abstract is available at Fertility & Sterility.

Back to Top

Resources for Donating Unused Embryos to Another Family for Family Building:

• Embryo Donation/Adoption 

Back to Top

Resources for Donating Unused Embryos to Research:

• Keep in mind that there are different types of research needing embryos, including stem cell research, infertility research, and embryo development research.

• January 6, 2010 Creating a Family show: Donating Unused Frozen Embryos to Research

• June 4, 2008 Creating a Family show:  What Should I Do With My Leftover Frozen Embryos - Donating for Research

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Website for Human Embryonic Stem Cells  Provide thorough information on stem cell research.

• Stem Cell 101- Basic information on stem cells and stem cell research.  Very good general introduction. 

• The National Academies of Sciences has an excellent booklet, “Understanding Stem Cells”, available for those interested in learning about stem cell research. 

• International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)—a nonprofit encouraging stem cell research.  This site is geared for professionals, but they have a page providing resources to the general public, including a video titled “Stem Cells: Myths, Truths and Possibilities”.

• Laboratories or Tissue Banks That Accept Donated Embryos

Back to Top

Resources for Thawing and Discarding Unused Embryos:

•  We could find no reputable unbiased resources explaining the mechanics of how embryos are thawed and discarded, other than the May 21, 2008 Creating a Family radio show: What Should I Do With My Leftover Frozen Embryos .  In this show we discussed with an embryologist, a reproductive endocrinologist, an ethicist, and a legal scholar how embryos are thawed and discarded. We also discussed the option of having the embryos transferred into the woman's body during a non fertile time, a process known as "compassionate transfer".

• Talk with your infertility clinic or cryopreservation facility about their procedure for thawing and discarding.  

Back to Top