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Published on:

4th Jul 2022

What happens to frozen embryos when patients don’t want to be found?

This is a timely episode as the HFEA has just announced a change in the law for the storage of our frozen eggs, embryos, and sperms. From 1 July 2022, all patients can store their eggs, sperm, and embryos for their own treatment for up to 55 years, you just must make sure you provide consent every 10 years. Frozen Embryos are a topic that I do find quite triggering to be honest, as we didn’t go on to use ours. We donated them to science which is something I have spoken about on this podcast before.  Frozen embryos cause a lot of anguish to fertility patients when they don’t know if they can handle more treatment or if they can’t afford it, but it feels so unfair not to hold on to this precious material. But then as the popularity of IVF continues to grow and become more aware of it and have more access to it and sadly need it, there ultimately becomes more and more embryos in storage. We speak to embryologist Giles Palmer about this issue 

What was discussed: 

  • The anguish having frozen embryos has on people 
  • How it feels 
  • Reference to paper Giles wrote 
  • How each country has its own laws on the storage of embryos 
  • The growing inventory of eggs and sperm around the world and every clinic is talking about 
  • Storage fee that is attached  -how that is communicated with the patient 
  • Compassionate transfer 
  • Single embryo transfer, fertility preservation - all leading to a growing inventory
  • 300% increase in embryos stored over 5 years 
  • If you weren’t pregnant 75% of patients go back for the embryos
  • If they were pregnant to live birth 16% go back 
  • Giles spoke about how a new Dewer bought every year  - to store the embryos and he had to kn0ck down a wall to store them. The problem for many clinics - problem do they store in-house or off-site at a bio depositary 
  • How to deal with issues when storage time is up
  • Can’t store samples after consent is up
  • Paper said 25% of samples - never be used 
  • Embryos are yours to take elsewhere if you want to move them from your clinic 
  • Seed Ships 


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Giles Palmer on Insta

Webinars - https://ivfmeeting.com/


HFEA on Insta 

HFEA press release

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About the Podcast

The Fertility Podcast
The Fertility Podcast|Expert interviews|Women and Men sharing #TTC stories|Wellbeing support
If you’ve found your route to parenthood hasn’t been straightforward, The Fertility Podcast is for you. From how to optimise your fertility to getting pregnant naturally, navigating IVF, understanding donor conception or surrogacy to how to prepare for a life without children. Whatever your situation, you are not alone. Created by Natalie Silverman, a former fertility patient in 2014 Natalie set about speaking to experts and sharing lived experience and expert interviews In 2019 Kate Davies, an independent fertility nurse consultant joined as co-host and from 2023-2024, Kate hosted the podcast solo sharing more of her expert insight and stories from her patients. As The Fertility Podcast reached its 10th anniversary the decision was taken to cease publishing.. until now. The Fertility Podcast is proud to partner with Fertility Action, a new UK charity dedicated to supporting anyone affected by infertility, secondary infertility, or sub-fertility. Together, we aim to amplify our mission of education, empowerment, and support. Fertility Action combines patient advocacy with expert knowledge to offer peer support, therapy, and reliable information. They are also committed to improving fertility care access, raising awareness, and driving research to advance understanding and treatment.

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Natalie Silverman