In vitro fertilization has made it possible for tens of thousands of parents to experience the miracle of pregnancy and birth. For some, the process may use every embryo they created; others have embryos waiting in the wings, even though their families are complete.
Embryo Adoption
Embryo Adoption is a Heart-Full, Win-Win for Everyone
This latter situation means parents have a weighty decision to make; what to do with frozen embryos after they’re done building their family?
Historically, many couples have had to make the heart-wrenching decision to thaw their embryos, or the very expensive decision to keep them stored, even though that costs hundreds or more dollars per year. Both scenarios leave much to be desired, especially for those who believe every embryo represents a heart and soul ready and waiting to thrive.
Now, there is a win-win alternative for everyone – embryo adoption.
FCD Partners With Nightlight to Facilitate Embryo Donations & Adoptions
Nightlight’s Snowflakes Embryo Adoption program was established in to, “…help each donated embryo grow, develop and live a full life.” The FCD team shares the same objective, which led to our partnership with them to help facilitated the embryo donation and adoption processes.
Incredible organizations such as Nightlight understand that every embryo deserves a family, and that every parent who’s been through IVF deserves to know their embryos were adopted by parents who love them. The majority of embryos adopted through Nightlight and their affiliates go to families who weren’t able to conceive children on their own – giving them the ability to experience pregnancy, birth and infancy in a way they wouldn’t have otherwise, although there are exceptions.
Individuals and couples who benefit from adopting already-conceived embryos include:
Couples who can’t create a viable embryo on their own
Sometimes chromosomal or genetic abnormalities, or a combination of poor egg and sperm quality, mean couples simply can’t conceive a viable embryo using their own egg and sperm no matter how many IVF cycles they try. Adopting an embryo means a much higher chance of IVF-transfer success, and the ability to finally get pregnant and carry the baby they’ve been waiting for.
Individuals who want to become parents
Sometimes, individuals who would make the best parents simply don’t meet their life partner before the biological clock stops ticking. In this case, adopting an embryo is a surer way to be intimately connected to the pregnancy, labor and delivery of their baby – whether the mother carries the baby herself or the recipient parent chooses a gestational surrogate to carry the baby for him/her.
Those struggling to afford the costs of IVF or domestic adoption
The average cost of an embryo adoption is between $12,000 to $15,000 (not including the cost of embryo transfer and its associated services). When you consider that most couples go through multiple IVF cycles before achieving a full-term pregnancy and birth, or that the typical, domestic infant adoption process costs upwards of $30,000, it makes financial sense to consider embryo adoption.
FCD and Nightlight Offer Decades of Family Building Experience
Nightlight has found loving families for children who need them for more than five decades. Similarly, for more than thirty years, FCD’s Dr. J. Michael Putman has worked tirelessly to help individuals and couples conceive the children they’ve so strongly desired to bring into the world. A partnership between the two feels like a natural one – using creative and child-centered heart and innovation to join loving parents with the children they were meant to have.
Would you like to learn more about embryo adoption? Whether you are a prospective parent, interested in determining whether embryo adoption is the answer to your dreams, or whether you have extra embryos you won’t use now that your family is complete – the Fertility Center of Dallas team and the folks at Nightlight are ready to be in touch.
Let’s help to create a world where every embryo has a purpose, and every pair of loving arms has a beautiful baby to hold. Contact Fertility Center of Dallas to learn more.