Industry’s Growth Leads to Leftover Embryos, and Painful Choices

For patients with low fertility, embryo donations and IVF centers provide the hope of still having a family one day despite less-than-ideal circumstances. As recently reported in the New York Times article, Unused Embryos Pose Difficult Issue: What to Do With Them, these services continue to rapidly grow in popularity. In fact, IVF procedures now account for more than 1.5% of all births in the United States. Once an embryo is created, it may take one or several procedures to achieve pregnancy. But what happens with the unused embryos once the ultimate goal is achieved? This has been an issue facing IVF center patients for years and what is most prominently discussed in the New York Times Article. Many patients opt to continue freezing their embryos for future pregnancies, or they donate them to other families that desire to have children but are facing fertility issues of their own. Others choose to dispose of the embryos, or let the IVF or freezing center make the decision for them. There are a multitude of options for unused embryos, but in many cases, all patients need is time to decide what is best for them. For patients facing this decision, ReproTech is ready to help determine the best embryo storage plan, whether it’s for one year or decades. IVF centers are generally much costlier than long-term storage facilities and are not equipped to handle long-term storage because of their focus on other services. At ReproTech, storage is all we do, and we’ve been the industry leader in long-term reproductive tissue storage for 25 years. We offer safe, cost effective long-term storage so patients can take the time to make the right decision for them. To read the New York Times article, click here.