Hellobee Boards Topic: If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?

Hellobee Boards Topic: If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them? https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 02 May 2026 11:46:06 +0000 QBbride on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2372521 Sun, 29 Nov 2015 22:54:32 +0000 QBbride 2372521@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Do you have the option of a compassionate transfer? I know of a clinic where this is a possibility. I don't know many details but basically they transfer the remaining embryos at a time that it would pretty much be impossible to get pregnant and let nature take its course. I've heard that is a good option for those who don't want to discard them. (I live in Canada and don't think embryo adoption is an option here) BSB on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2372515 Sun, 29 Nov 2015 22:49:37 +0000 BSB 2372515@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @meadow: yup, we have a donate to science option at my clinic. As a scientist myself, this does sound very appealing if I truely decide we are done. agold on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2372480 Sun, 29 Nov 2015 22:08:36 +0000 agold 2372480@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I'm not even to the point yet where I have any left over (none of have worked yet for me!). But I plan to use all embryos within reason. I will store any that I don't use for a long while. I pay for storage in three year increments. Miss Sarah on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2372417 Sun, 29 Nov 2015 20:55:55 +0000 Miss Sarah 2372417@https://boards.hellobee.com/ This is something I'm already emotionally struggling with, even though LO1 was just born 12 days ago. We have 4 frozen embryos and while it's unlikely they would all be sticky, the possibility exists that there would be a couple left when we decide we're done. Add to that the fact that there is no medical reason that we couldn't get pregnant naturally in the future... I don't know, it's a tough decision. DH prefers donating to research, which I suppose, to me, is probably the best option out of three pretty difficult decisions. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there... bloved on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2372079 Sun, 29 Nov 2015 10:41:25 +0000 bloved 2372079@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We don't have the option of allowing for adoption, so we can only discard or donate to science. We are definitely done after this pregnancy (currently 19 weeks) so we need to decide. Given the choices, I assume we will donate to science but neither option is ideal to me. MrsYellowJacket on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2372069 Sun, 29 Nov 2015 10:30:07 +0000 MrsYellowJacket 2372069@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @meadow: good point! We're allowed to donate to science as well which is what we did with our embryos that stopped growing during the 5 days. I do feel like it's a way of giving back to the process that enabled us to have a family. However, in my heart, it still feels similar to discarding. So I change my answer to donate to science with the remaining... winter_wonder on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2372064 Sun, 29 Nov 2015 10:23:04 +0000 winter_wonder 2372064@https://boards.hellobee.com/ DH and I will donate them for embryo adoption if we have any extra. I initially didn't like this idea of this (during our first failed IVF cycle). I was worried about a baby just being "out there." But, with this last cycle (with donor eggs) we've decided to donate any remaining embryos we don't use. I think my mind has changed a lot because I realize that not everyone will be successful using their own embryos with IVF and not everyone will be able to afford a donor cycle. I think embryo adoption is a great option for some couples. meadow on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2372003 Sun, 29 Nov 2015 08:30:00 +0000 meadow 2372003@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We have a long way to go before we decide (10 weeks pregnant with SET twins at the moment)..... but my clinic had a third option that might be a happier medium...... they also offered donation to science? I like that better than discarding because it will help further the field of medicine that brought us our twins. People must have donated eggs or embryos for IVF to have come this far.....it felt like a way of giving back. I don't know which we will ultimately pick....embryo adoption or donate to science.....but not discard because we have the other oprions. Something to possibly check in on. tequiero21 on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2371901 Sat, 28 Nov 2015 23:46:06 +0000 tequiero21 2371901@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @twodoghouse: that's what we did. We kept it for a year, since our fees included one year of storage. But ultimately decided not to use it. We didn't feel comfortable with adoption. We wanted three, but we're happy with two. Our third was without intervention. GreenThumb on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2361007 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 09:07:16 +0000 GreenThumb 2361007@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We have a single frozen one that we are not going to use (since we already had 3 failed FETs from that batch). Signing the papers this weekend actually. Extremely hard for both of us to let this one go, but I feel like we are ready to move on with another fresh cycle coming up in December. Mrs Green Grass on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2360763 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 00:01:20 +0000 Mrs Green Grass 2360763@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Yep, three years later I still haven't given the word... sandy on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2360723 Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:37:44 +0000 sandy 2360723@https://boards.hellobee.com/ This weighed on my heart so much heading into IVF. All I can say is no one can judge and no one will truly understand how they would feel until they are faced with the decision. And we all have to make the best decision for ourselves and our families. We have two frozen embryos and if it is possible we plan to use both. I don't know if we could say that if there were more than two. That will mean a total of 4 pregnancies and deliveries via csection. I'm no spring chicken so we'll have to see what the doctors say about two more pregnancies and Csections...but that's the plan MrsYellowJacket on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2360601 Tue, 17 Nov 2015 20:59:02 +0000 MrsYellowJacket 2360601@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnant with twins now and we have 7 in the freezer. We're pretty sure we'll use two more. Our clinic doesn't do adoption sooooo decision is made for us - doesn't mean I feel good about it :( but knew this was a potential with ivf erinbaderin on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2360444 Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:31:26 +0000 erinbaderin 2360444@https://boards.hellobee.com/ When I was in the midst of infertility my hair stylist offered me her frozen eggs (she had had some frozen before chemotherapy, had one child and no plans to have more. I'd been going to her for 20 years and we were friends so it was only mildly weird). I ultimately said no thank you but it was so nice to have a bit of a backup plan, and I think she felt more comfortable with somebody she knew having them than any other option. twodoghouse on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2360443 Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:30:41 +0000 twodoghouse 2360443@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We discarded our remaining embryo after our twins were born. We are 99.9999% sure we are done, but if we ever tried for a 3rd we would try naturally or with minimal intervention. We wouldn't go through IVF again. mrswin on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2360422 Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:16:43 +0000 mrswin 2360422@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We have 2 embryos frozen but are 95% sure we will only have one more child so we could potentially end up with one embryo left over. This is something I really struggle with because I cannot imagine discarding it but my SO and I don't think we are comfortable with embryo adoption.... This decision will be moot if we need more than one FET to have a second child but it weighs heavily. Also if we needed to do another fresh cycle, what then? I almost feel guilty having frosties if we have no plans to use them... ETA: I also think about what we would do if we were to get pregnant on our own. I hope some bees that have been down this road will weigh in BSB on "If you have frozen embryos and are done having children, are you still holding onto them?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-you-have-frozen-embryos-and-are-done-having-children-are-you-still-holding-onto-them#post-2360402 Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:01:12 +0000 BSB 2360402@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We aren't sure if we will have more children after our twins... So it's too soon for me to answer this question. A part of me thinks, I'll still want them in my possession even if we decide we are done. Still undecided about giving them up for adoption. I guess time will tell how I feel about it.