In the U.S., there are over a million embryos in frozen storage, Jenny said. Some organizations put together an adoption model to match families who don’t need the embryos anymore with couples who would like to adopt them.

“Snowflake” babies helped people on the left become parents and helped people on the right make peace with thorny ethical issues with IVF.

Embryo adoption seeks to save children conceived in IVF from being destroyed or indefinitely frozen, and in the U.S., the annual donated embryo transfer rate more than tripled from 2004 to 2019.

“After we hung up the phone with them, we went straight to the Snowflakes website, and for the first time in a long time, we got a new sense of hope and excitement,” Mary Leah said. “Not only was it a new option for starting our family, but it also offered me an opportunity to be pregnant.”

Nearly two months after joining Snowflakes, the Millers were matched with donated frozen embryos from a couple who completed their family and wanted to donate their embryos instead of destroy them.

When faced with infertility, Amanda and Jeff Walker had a baby through in vitro fertilization but were left with extra embryos — and questions. Tori and Sam Earle “adopted” an embryo frozen 20 years earlier by another couple.

In vitro fertilization began in 1978. Today, there are more than 400,000 IVF procedures a year in the U.S., and more than half are implanted. But almost 170,000 are not used. Some owners choose to destroy, store, or donate embryos.

IVF and IUI’s, if you’ve dealt with infertility, all the acronyms mean the same thing. You can’t have a child. It’s crushing news for couples who want so badly to be parents, but embryo adoption is changing all of that. The more you learn about it the more it feels like a scientific miracle. At […]

After years of trying, Mary Leah and Rodney Miller were thrilled to welcome twins last December. Their children, born two days before Christmas via embryo adoption, are now celebrating their first birthday — and their first Christmas at home.

November is National Adoption Month. Many of us are familiar with traditional domestic and international adoptions that take place after birth. However, families can adopt embryos.