Everything we get asked, answered plainly.

Some families complete IVF with embryos they do not plan to use. Embryo donation allows them to donate those embryos to another person or family hoping to grow their family. The recipient then works with a fertility clinic to determine whether and how to proceed with a frozen embryo transfer.

Embryo donation is sometimes called “embryo adoption,” although the terms are not legally the same.

With embryo donation, the embryo has already been created and is genetically related to the donor family. The intended parent, their partner, or a gestational carrier may carry the pregnancy.

Unlike traditional adoption, embryo donation generally takes place before a child is born and is typically handled through legal agreements between the parties. Laws vary by state, so each family should work with a qualified reproductive attorney.

Known donation means the donor and intended parent or family know who each other are and decide together what kind of contact feels right.

That could mean occasional updates, an ongoing relationship, or something in between. Fertility Match helps families discuss their preferences and expectations before deciding to move forward.

Rather than asking you to pick one word for all of that, both sides answer the same four questions, with the same options: what identity information is shared and when, how often updates happen, whether the families stay in direct contact, and how children genetically related to the embryos might connect. You can answer “open to discussing” to any of them, and expectations can be revisited as children grow. If you are getting ready to talk to someone, the preparation guide takes the four questions one at a time.

A directed donation is one where the donor family chooses the family who receives their embryos, rather than handing that choice to a program. Every donation on Fertility Match is directed in that sense: nothing moves without the donor’s agreement, and nobody is allocated to anybody.

You may also meet other words elsewhere for how much two families know of each other and how much they stay in touch. We do not ask you to pick one of them, because two families can use the same word and be picturing completely different years — one means a photo at a birthday, the other means Thanksgiving. The four questions above are there instead.

Children born from the same set of embryos are genetic siblings — to each other, and to any children the donor family is already raising.

Families often decide in advance whether those children may know about each other, and how contact might work. It is one of the four relationship questions both sides answer, and it is worth revisiting as children grow and form their own views.

PGT is genetic testing done on an embryo before transfer. Depending on the type, it can report a chromosome count, a specific inherited condition that was tested for, or a structural rearrangement.

It cannot promise a healthy pregnancy or a healthy child, and it is not a quality rating. What a result means for you belongs with your fertility clinic or a genetic counselor. Fertility Match records what kind of testing was done, the result category in the words of the report, and who holds the report. It does not interpret any of it.

Your fertility clinic handles medical screening, whatever it can confirm about the embryo records, and the transfer cycle. A reproductive attorney writes and reviews the legal agreement, and each side should have their own.

A mental health professional helps you think through the decision and the relationship. A genetic counselor explains screening and PGT results. Fertility Match helps you find each other and keeps track of the steps. It does none of those four things.

Adults (18+) in the U.S. who are hoping to grow their family through donated embryos and are working with — or willing to work with — a fertility clinic.

Fertility Match welcomes single people, couples, LGBTQ+ families, and people of any faith or no faith. All members are asked to verify their identity.

That is worth taking time over, and there is no rush.

A mental health professional who works with family building can help you think through what donor conception would mean for you, for a partner if you have one, and for a child who will have genetic siblings in another family. Your fertility clinic can tell you whether a frozen embryo transfer is a reasonable path for you medically. Fertility Match does neither of those things.

Fertility Match is free for intended parents.

You may still have costs related to fertility treatment, medical screening, legal services, counseling, storage, testing, shipping, or other professional services involved in an embryo donation.

Your fertility clinic is the only one who can answer that for you.

It depends on your medical picture, how many children you hope for, and the embryos themselves. A donor’s profile shows a short, non-technical summary: how many embryos are in storage, whether PGT was done, and how many children are already genetically related to them. Treat that as the start of a conversation with your clinic, not an answer.

You see what the donor chose to put on their profile: the number of embryos in storage, their origin, whether PGT and genetic screening were done, and how many children are genetically related to them.

The detailed record behind that — inventory, creation details, genetic source, PGT, carrier screening, storage — is not shown to you. It is shared with the clinic or laboratory the donor authorizes for that step, and each part of it is labeled with whether a member typed it in or a laboratory confirmed it. Details about an egg or sperm donor are only held once the member confirms they have written permission to share them.

The receiving clinic decides whether it will accept a donation, and that decision is entirely theirs.

It will usually want a clinic or laboratory to look at the donor’s records, may require screening or an eligibility determination under its own protocols, and then plans the transfer cycle itself. Programs differ, so ask your clinic early what it requires. A clinic can only see a donor’s record because the donor authorized it, for that one purpose.

You can start a conversation. Nothing else changes automatically, and accepting a request does not unlock private records or sensitive details. If you would like to think about that first conversation beforehand, the preparation guide is written for exactly that evening.

If you both decide to move forward, you can open a case: a shared workspace holding the steps ahead, each with an owner and a date, and the place where you each authorize the clinic, attorney or counselor you choose. Either of you can step back at any time.

Either of you can end a conversation or step back from a case at any point, without explaining yourself. Any embryos committed to that case are released.

Your case stays on your list rather than disappearing, and you are free to look again. If it lands hard, a mental health professional who works with family building is the right kind of support.

Embryos that are not transferred stay in storage, and someone is paying for that storage.

What happens to them — whether they stay with you, return to the donor family, or something else — should be written into your agreement before anything moves. Your attorney and your clinic handle that. Fertility Match does not hold, store, ship, or decide anything about embryos.

Counselors who work with donor-conceived families generally suggest telling children early, in plain language, and returning to it as they grow rather than saving it for one conversation.

What you say about the donor family, and whether children genetically related to each other may know about one another, is worth agreeing with the donor before you move forward. A mental health professional can help you find the words. Fertility Match does not advise on this.

Only you can answer that, and there is no clock on it.

Many people find it helps to talk it through first with a mental health professional who works with family building: how you would feel about a child growing up in another family, what you would want to know, and what your partner thinks if you have one. Fertility Match does not counsel you, and nothing moves forward until you say so.

You decide who you want to connect with and whether you want to move forward.

Your profile asks what you are hoping for in the family who receives your embryos — family structure, location, faith, the relationship you hope for, and anything else that matters to you. Nothing moves forward without your agreement.

That is your decision, and your clinic’s records are the starting point for it.

Your embryo record asks how many embryos are in a batch, how many are available now, and whether you are considering donating all of that batch or some of it. You can also say whether you would consider more than one family. A batch is only committed to a case when it is deliberately committed, and it cannot be committed to two cases at once.

Your fertility clinic and your storage facility hold the source records: cycle details, genetic source, any PGT and carrier screening, and the storage and device information.

On Fertility Match you enter that yourself, and a clinic or laboratory you authorize can confirm a group of it against records. The two never look the same on screen. If the embryos were made with a donor egg or donor sperm, we hold nothing about that person until you confirm you have written permission to share it. Your attorney will tell you what else the agreement itself requires.

Yes. You can end a conversation or step back from a case at any point, for any reason, without explaining yourself, and any batch committed to that case is released.

Nothing you agree on Fertility Match is a binding donation agreement — that happens with your clinic and your attorneys. Where the point of no return falls is set by that agreement and by your clinic, so ask your attorney where yours is.

That depends on what you and the receiving family agree in writing, and it is worth deciding before anything moves.

Some agreements return unused embryos, some leave the decision with the family who received them. Your attorney should write that down, and your clinic and storage facility should know the plan. Fertility Match does not decide it and cannot enforce it.

Children born from your donated embryos would be genetic siblings to the children you are raising.

Families handle that differently. Some tell children early, some plan for contact later, some are still working it out. It is one of the four relationship questions both sides answer, and it is a good subject for a mental health professional who works with donor-conceived families. Expectations can be revisited as children grow.

Yes, if both sides want that.

You each answer the same four questions — identity, updates, direct contact, and connection among genetic siblings — and talk them through before deciding to move forward. The preparation guide goes through what each of those four is really asking. Those expectations can then be addressed with your attorneys as part of the legal process, and revisited at the moments that matter: the legal match, a pregnancy or birth, and as children grow.

Your embryo record has a place to note medical information that has come to light since the embryos were created, and the two of you can agree how often you would want to be in touch.

Fertility Match is not the keeper of that promise. There is nothing in the platform that could deliver a medical update to a child decades from now. If that matters to you, it belongs in the legal agreement, with your attorney.

Only logged-in members can see your profile, and it shows what you chose to put there. Your precise location is not displayed, photos are optional, and no private records travel with a connection request.

What identity information you share, and when, is one of the four relationship questions you answer, and you can say you are open to discussing it. We do not offer anonymity as an option, because no platform can honestly promise it.

Only logged-in Fertility Match members can view profiles.

Your profile includes the information you choose to share, such as your story, general location, family structure, faith, and preferences. Some additional information may be shared after you both choose to connect. Sensitive records and screening information are only shared with the people authorized for that step, and only with the required consent.

Your precise location is not displayed. Photos are optional.

It means our team confirmed your identity, and it shows the date that happened. That is all it means.

It is not a medical, legal, records, or background check. Those are separate steps with their own status, and no single badge stands in for all of them.

Home DNA testing and public genealogy databases mean no platform, clinic, or agreement can promise that identities stay unknown forever. Anyone who says otherwise is promising something they cannot control.

So we do not offer anonymity as an option. Instead you choose what identity information is shared and when — now, later, available to the child when they are older, or limited for the time being — and you can say you are open to discussing it. Planning for the possibility of future contact tends to serve children better than assuming it will never happen.

You can block or report another member at any time.

Blocking ends the connection and prevents further contact through Fertility Match. If the two of you had already opened a case, that case stays open with both of you on it until it is closed — a case has a clinic and records attached to it, so blocking does not dissolve one. Reports are reviewed by our team, and we can suspend an account, which takes that member out of Browse and stops them sending or receiving requests.

Requests to buy or sell embryos are not permitted.

Photos are optional. You can change or remove yours at any time, and only logged-in members can see it.

Home DNA testing and public genealogy databases mean no platform, clinic, or agreement can keep an identity unknown forever. So plan for the possibility of future contact rather than assume it will not happen. What you decide about identity is part of your relationship answers here, and it belongs in your legal agreement too.

No. Embryos are never bought or sold through Fertility Match, and members may not offer, request, or accept payment for embryos.

Families may still have costs related to medical care, legal services, counseling, storage, testing, shipping, or other professional services involved in embryo donation.

No. Fertility Match is a matching and communication platform.

Medical questions should be discussed with your fertility clinic, and legal questions with a qualified reproductive attorney. Nothing on Fertility Match replaces professional medical or legal advice.

Fertility Match is free for members. Participating clinics subscribe, and that is how the platform is paid for.

The costs that are real belong to the professionals you engage: medical screening and the transfer cycle at your clinic, each side’s attorney, counseling and genetic counseling, storage, testing, and shipping between facilities. Those costs are yours, and Fertility Match does not set them. Ask each professional for their own fees early, before you are far along.

Either side can request to connect. They can review your profile before accepting, and no private records are shared with a request. If the other person accepts, you can start a conversation.

Members can have up to three active connections at a time. The limit is designed to keep the process thoughtful and manageable, rather than overwhelming.

One thing worth knowing: a request you have sent counts towards your three as soon as you send it, even before anyone replies. So if you send three and none has been answered yet, you will be told you are full. Withdraw one and the slot comes straight back. A request somebody sent you costs you nothing until you accept it.

No. There is no match score, no percentage and no quality rating — nothing here calls one family a better match than another.

We show areas of alignment — the specific things you and another member already agree on, such as relationship expectations, identity and contact preferences, genetic-sibling connection, family-building hopes, and geographic flexibility — alongside things to discuss, like a different preferred frequency of updates. Everything shown traces back to something you both chose to share, and you can edit the answers that produced it.

Browse can be sorted by how much you have in common, which puts the profiles with more areas of alignment nearer the top of the page. That ordering is not shown as a number and it is not a verdict on anyone: it counts only the answers you both chose to share, and never age, disability, or anything medical or genetic.

It means both sides have decided they would like to explore the next steps together.

From there, your fertility clinic, attorneys, and any other needed professionals can guide the medical, legal, counseling, storage, and transport process.

You can end a conversation at any time.

Your message history may remain available for a limited period before it is deleted. If you both want to reconnect later, you can send a new request.

They travel frozen, in a shipper built for that, moved either by the clinics themselves or by a courier who does only this work. Fertility Match never touches this part: we do not hold, store, ship, or arrange the shipping of embryos, and nothing you do on the platform moves anything anywhere.

It is three steps, and each one has an owner. Release — the storage facility holding the embryos lets them go, once its own requirements are met. Shipping — transport between the two facilities, arranged by the clinics or a specialist courier. Receipt — the receiving laboratory confirms the embryos arrived and are in its storage. On a case they are three separate steps on the shared checklist, each with an owner and a date, so both of you can see which one is waiting.

They also sit late on that checklist, after the receiving clinic has decided it will accept the donation, after the legal agreements, and after any screening that clinic requires. The order is there because that is the order the work happens in — your clinic and your attorneys set it, not us.

The most common thing that stops all of it is a storage account in arrears. A facility will not release embryos while its own requirements are outstanding, and until release happens there is nothing to ship and nothing to receive. If your storage bill is behind, or you are not certain whose name the account is in, sort that out early — long before anyone books a courier.

There is no standard timeline, and we would rather not invent one.

Finding someone can take weeks or months. The steps after that — records review, counseling, legal agreements, the receiving clinic’s decision, release, shipping and receipt — each move at the pace of the people doing them. Common causes of delay are a storage account that is not up to date, a facility that will not release to another clinic, screening that has to be repeated, or attorneys waiting on each other.

Your clinic and your attorney can give you a realistic estimate for your own situation. We cannot.

Participating clinics subscribe to Fertility Match so intended parents and embryo donors can use the platform at no cost.

A clinic account shows counts, not patients. Your organization sees how many cases name it, how many sit on each pathway and at each stage, how many steps someone has marked blocked, and how many batches of embryos are committed to one of your cases. It does not show who the donor or the intended parent is, what is in an embryo record, or anything either of them said.

A named case reaches one person at a time: a donor or an intended parent authorizes a specific member of your team, for one thing — the embryo records, legal, counseling, coordination, or the intended parent’s own clinic readiness — and either of them can withdraw it. Three of those are each their owner’s to give: records and coordination only from the donor, since both open the embryology, and readiness only from the intended parent, since that is their own clinical status. Reviewing both sides therefore takes one authorization from each of them. Your team is invited onto a case by the patient, not assigned to it by us.

For details, visit For Clinics or contact us.

Yes. Choose “I’m a professional” when you sign up, then tell us which you are: fertility clinic or laboratory team, reproductive endocrinologist, reproductive attorney, mental health professional, or genetic counselor.

A clinic or laboratory team sets up an organization — locations and laboratories, the people who work on cases and what each of them may do, and your program rules. Everyone else sets up a professional account with their firm or practice and their license details. We verify professional accounts by hand, and until we have, the account reads as pending to anyone deciding whether to work with you.

Professionals never browse members. There is no directory, no search and no member profile to open. You see a case because one of the two people in it authorized you personally, for one thing at a time — the embryo records, legal, counseling, coordination, or the intended parent’s clinic readiness — and either of them can withdraw that whenever they want.

Clinics can read more at For Clinics, or write to us.