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Updated: Jun 3, 2026
Cryopreservation of Preimplantation Embryos of Cattle, Sheep, and Goats
Published on: August 5, 2011
The frozen embryo and its nonresponding parents
Veerle Provoost1, Guido Pennings, Petra De Sutter
1Bioethics Institute Ghent, Ghent University, and Department of Reproductive Medicine, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. veerle.provoost@ugent.be
Objective:
To describe patients who at least once did not reply to correspondence of the center about embryo disposition.
Design:
Anonymous questionnaire.
Setting:
Department of Reproductive Medicine, Ghent University Hospital (Belgium).
Patient(S):
Patients whose embryos were stored for at least 2 years.
Intervention(S):
Mail survey.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Patients' reply behavior, their characteristics, their embryo disposition decision, and their attitudes toward this decision.
Result(S):
The response rate was 79%. Twelve percent of the patients were nonrepliers, mostly because they were not able to reach a (joint) decision. Nonrepliers were somewhat older, their last treatment cycle was longer ago, and it more often had a negative outcome. Nonrepliers were childless twice as often as other patients. They also more often experienced anticipated regret about the decision, and they valued their embryos more often in relation to the use for their own treatment. The proportion of patients who seldom thought about their embryos was the same in both groups.
Conclusion(S):
Treatment failure, anticipated regret, and valuing the embryo on the basis of probability of use influence patients' reply behavior and may be key elements for prevention measures.
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