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Donation of frozen embryos after in vitro fertilization is uncommon
C V Hounshell1, R J Chetkowski
1Alta Bates In Vitro Fertilization Program, Berkeley, California, USA.
Objective:
To determine the availability of donated cryopreserved embryos.
Design:
Retrospective review.
Setting:
Community hospital-based IVF-ET program.
Patients:
Eighty-three consecutive infertile couples who had 98 sets of embryos cryopreserved after IVF-ET and GIFT between January 1, 1989 and December 31, 1991.
Intervention(S):
Cryopreservation of fertilized oocytes or cleaving embryos after IVF-ET and GIFT.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Disposition of frozen embryos as of December 31, 1995.
Result(S):
Of 98 sets of frozen embryos, 71 (72.4%) were thawed for transfer into the infertile woman. At an average of 6 years since the treatment cycle, six sets of embryos (6.1%) remain in storage. Of 21 sets of embryos not thawed for autologous transfer, the majority (17.4%) were discarded, leaving only four clutches (4.1%) available for donation.
Conclusion(S):
Couples who did not use their frozen embryos after IVF-ET and GIFT were four times more likely to destroy them than to donate them.