Discarding IVF embryos: reporting on global practices

To provide a global scale report on a representative sample of the clinical embryology community depicting the practice of discarding supernumerary IVF embryos.

A web-based questionnaire titled “Anonymous questionnaire on embryo disposal practices” was designed in order to ensure anonymous participation of practicing clinical embryologists around the world.

During a data collection period of 8 months, 703 filled-in questionnaires from 65 countries were acquired. According to the data acquired, the majority of practitioners, dispose of embryos by placing them directly in a trash can strictly dedicated for embryo disposal for both fresh and frozen cycles (39% and 36.7% respectively). Moreover, 66.4% of practitioners discard the embryos separately—case by case—at different time points during the day. Over half of embryologists (54%) wait until day 6 to discard the surplus embryos, while 65.5% do not implement a specially allocated incubator space as a designated waiting area prior to disposal. The majority of 63.1% reported that this is a witnessed procedure. The vast majority of embryologists (93%) do not employ different protocols for different groups of patients. Nonetheless, 17.8% reported the request to perform a ceremony for these embryos. Assessing the embryologists’ perspective, 59.5% of participants stated that the embryology practice would benefit from a universally accepted and practiced protocol.

This study uniquely provides insight into global embryo disposal practices and trends. Results highlight the divergence between reported practices, while indicating the significance on standardization of practice, with embryologists acknowledging the need for a universally accepted protocol implementation.