When I had exhausted our fertility procedures and was waiting to adopt, a friend of mine was starting her own fertility journey. I had already reached a place of making peace with never getting pregnant, but my friend was just starting to face that she might never know what it feels like to become pregnant. She learned about a program called the Snowflake program and asked me what I thought about it.

The Snowflake program is one of several services available that enables a couple to adopt an embryo. The adoptive mother has the embryo implanted into her uterus, and she goes through a full pregnancy, giving birth to a child whose DNA comes from another couple. My friend took a lot of comfort in knowing that this was an option because it was possible for her to still experience a pregnancy, even if she never conceived a baby with her husband.

Where do these embryos come from? They are left over after couples complete in vitro fertilization (IVF). When a couple tries to become pregnant through IVF, multiple eggs are fertilized but only a limited number are implanted with each attempt to become pregnant. After the couple becomes pregnant, there might be a number of embryos left over.

What should a couple do with these leftover embryos? Some choose to destroy them, but others have trouble destroying embryos after going through so many struggles to become pregnant. One option for couples who do not want to destroy their leftover embryos is to place them for adoption with another couple, who will implant the embryos into the woman's uterus and, hopefully, give birth to a healthy baby. Couples who choose to pursue an embryo adoption get to experience a full pregnancy in addition to parenthood.

There are some downsides to this form of adoption. First, there are no guarantees that the embryos will implant, so you can wind up paying a lot of money without achieving a pregnancy. Also, if you choose to tell your family and friends that you became pregnant through embryo adoption, you are likely to encounter mixed reactions to the news. In her post Adopting Embryos, Abby, who was herself adopted a child, raises additional issues that parents must face if they choose to grow their families in this manner.

Related Topics:

• Embryo Adoption
• Embryo Adoption Awareness Campaign

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