Thursday, 10 September 2009

New storage limit for frozen embryos

Many couples who have frozen embryos in storage will be delighted to learn that the government is set to extend the limit on the time they can be kept from five years to ten.

Often people are not ready to use all their frozen embryos within a timescale of five years, and changing the rules is a sensible and rather overdue move. Most women produce more eggs during an IVF cycle than they can use immediately, and freezing spare embryos allows another, less intrusive, treatment cycle at a later date. However, not everyone is able to use all their spare embryos within the time limits, and there can be little more distressing than having to allow them to be destroyed.

You can see a statement from the HFEA at www.hfea.gov.uk

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