Couples examined at the infertility department of Tu Du Hospital - Photo: DUYEN PHAN
Doing IVF (in vitro fertilization) and stimulating the ovaries too many times, leading to hospitalization, creating too many embryos until having enough children but still having more than 10 embryos left... is an alarming situation in IVF that many pregnant women experience. Many families are in a situation where "donating embryos is not something they can bear, but destroying them is not something they can bear"...
What to do with extra IVF embryos?
Ms. HA (living in Binh Tan district, Ho Chi Minh City) had difficulty conceiving naturally, so she and her husband sought out in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the hope of having their first child.
She had created many embryos and was lucky enough to have a baby. However, she suffered from postpartum depression and decided with her husband not to have any more children. With so many embryos left, she couldn’t bear to donate them and couldn’t bear to destroy them either.
"If we donate, if we encounter incestuous marriages in the future, our children will suffer, but we can't bear to cancel because we worked so hard to have our children. Now my husband and I don't know what to do because our bodies can't carry another pregnancy," Ms. HA confided.
As for Ms. MD (living in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City), she already had 2 girls but still wanted to have a son, so she decided to try to create embryos using IVF with a slim hope. However, after creating more than 5 unscreened embryos, she decided not to have more children because of the 2 previous cesarean sections, plus her middle age, her health had declined.
"If I cancel, it's like I'm giving up my own child. If I donate, my embryo will only be grade 3, and will usually be donated to medical science and not to another family. Now, if I store it, the family will not be able to afford the cost for many years. I also regret not thinking carefully from the beginning," Ms. D. shared.
There are many cases like Ms. A., on social networking forums, especially the groups "TTTON" or "Infertility Association, Wanting Children"... many people have been struggling with the number of surplus embryos in their family. Account TH shared: "For example, the remaining embryos that parents do not use and do not want to destroy, what should we do? I have 15 embryos left". Account CL said: "I made 9 embryos, luckily I have 3 babies, what should I do with the remaining embryos?"...
It is worth mentioning that in order to create a standard number of embryos, many cases have to be hospitalized for treatment during the egg stimulation process.
An account named HN said she had polycystic ovaries, but because she wanted to have children, she did IVF. However, during the process, she suffered from severe ovarian hyperstimulation, had to be hospitalized for a week, and failed in that embryo selection cycle.
"Because we were so worried, my husband and I temporarily stopped doing IVF to hope to have a baby naturally, but it's been over a year and we still haven't had one. Now we want to do it again but we're afraid of having to stimulate ovulation," Ms. N. shared.
Do not create too many unnecessary embryos
Speaking with Tuoi Tre, Dr. Ho Manh Tuong - general secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility - said that in Vietnam, the cost of one IVF treatment is quite high compared to the general income.
Previously, in the early days of IVF, the level of IVF was not high, the embryo culture process was not well controlled, leading to a low success rate of embryos transferred into the uterus.
Most patients need to transfer embryos multiple times to get pregnant; or if all the embryos are gone and still not pregnant, they have to be treated again. Therefore, doctors and patients tend to stimulate the ovaries strongly, using many drugs to create many embryos, even in cases with high pregnancy rates.
Currently, the level of IVF in Vietnam has developed and is highly effective, because IVF centers have a good quality management system, and the pregnancy rate of embryos transferred into the uterus is high. Cases with good prognosis only need to transfer a few embryos, 1-2 times, to have enough children, and most couples only want 1-2 children, leading to an increasing number of cases with excess embryos and the number of frozen embryos that are no longer used in hospitals.
In addition, excessive ovarian stimulation also increases drug costs, increases the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, and increases the cost of freezing and storing excess embryos.
Therefore, in young cases with good ovarian reserve, strong ovarian stimulation should be limited to reduce treatment costs, be safer for the patient, not create too many unnecessary embryos, and significantly reduce treatment costs for the patient.
According to Dr. Tuong, the trend of non-ovarian stimulation IVF in the long term will significantly reduce the problem of storing and destroying embryos that are no longer useful.
Regarding the issue of storing excess embryos, destroying embryos, or donating embryos, Dr. Phan Chi Thanh - Chief of Office of the Training and Guidance Center, Central Maternity Hospital - said that if possible, families should continue to pay to store embryos, considering it an asset they leave behind, because in life there are unpredictable risks.
Tens of thousands of unused embryos
According to the general secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Vietnam currently has more than 60 IVF centers, performing about 50,000 new IVF cycles each year. Of these, more than 1/3 of the cases have become pregnant and given birth but still have unused frozen embryos.
It is estimated that there are currently tens of thousands of cases of frozen embryos in the country, each case has an average of 2-3 embryos.
In theory, if the embryo freezing technique and embryo storage management process are good, the embryos can be stored for a long time without much change in embryo quality. However, in long-standing IVF centers, the number of excess embryos accumulated is increasing, while the storage capacity of hospitals is limited, most IVF centers only accept embryo storage for a certain period of time.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thu-tinh-trong-ong-nghiem-du-phai-lam-sao-20250314063313011.htm
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