How Many Embryos are Needed for Surrogacy?

If you’re moving on from IVF to surrogacy, any leftover embryos can be used in your surrogacy journey. Knowing how many embryos are needed for surrogacy can help you determine whether you need to create more.

Understanding this can help you prepare for the process ahead and make the best decisions for your family-building goals.  

In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is part of the surrogacy journey and having embryos secured puts you that much closer to being able to experience parenthood.

Fill out our form today to find out more about surrogacy could look like depending on how many embryos you have and if it could be right for your situation.

This article will expand on how many embryos for surrogacy are needed as well as what decisions you may have to make depending on how many embryos you have.

How Many Embryos Are Needed for Surrogacy?

The average recommendation of many clinics is to generally have three to five embryos for IVF.  Not every embryo created through IVF will be transferred to your surrogate.

The number of embryos that will be transferred depends on your:

• Age
• Genetic testing
• Embryo quality
• Clinic recommendations

Depending on how many high-quality embryos you have, you could be matched with a surrogate in as little as 1-6 months.

But if you are looking for how many embryos are needed for surrogacy, you could only have a few embryos left or none at all. You can still create embryos specifically for surrogacy.

One Frozen Embryo Left

Even with one frozen embryo left, it’s still possible to become a parent. In fact, most clinics only transfer one embryo at a time.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) put out guidance on the limits to the number of embryos to transfer during IVF cycles in 2021.

Their guidance was based on promoting singleton gestation and reducing the number of multiple pregnancies, which has health risks and adds additional cost, while maximizing live birth rates.

Based on their data, clinics that performed more single-embryo transfer in women aged less than 38 years old had decreased rates of multiple gestations with no significant impact on live birth rates.

Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) can help you determine how many embryos for your surrogacy journey are viable for transfer. PGT can help you increase your chances of a successful embryo transfer and pregnancy.

PGT-A can detect aneuploidies, or chromosomal abnormalities. Selecting euploid embryos, embryos with the normal number of chromosomes, increases the chance of a successful pregnancy.

PGT-M detects monogenic, or single-gene, disorders to ensure that your child doesn’t inherit any of them.

“These findings are further evidence of just how far IVF has come – that now, women with three normal embryos have a 95% chance of pregnancy,” said Dr. Paul Pirtea, who conducted the retrospective research at RMA’s fertility clinic in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, in 2018.

How Successful is Embryo Transfer to Surrogate?

If you only have one frozen embryo left, a surrogate can increase your chances of success. Surrogates must meet strict requirements such as age, completing a successful pregnancy previously and more, along with a medical screening to ensure they can complete a pregnancy safely.

Two Frozen Embryos Left

With one or two frozen embryos left, you do need to consider your options if the embryo transfer doesn’t result in a pregnancy.

Cost is a common concern for those growing their family and if the embryo transfer fails, you will need to create more embryos through additional IVF cycles.

Your surrogate may have her own preferences too, choosing intended parents that are willing to complete two or more transfers.

Is 3 Embryos Enough for IVF?

Yes, most clinics recommend a minimum of 3-5 embryos. A study conducted found that out of 4,515 patients with three consecutive single embryo transfers of euploid embryos, 94.9% became pregnancy. Implantation rates fell for each transfer, 69.4% for the first, 59.3% for the second and 59.2% for the third.

Fill out our online contact form to learn more about your next steps for the surrogacy process or to be connected to fertility clinics that can give you more guidance depending on how many embryos you have left, whether that’s undergoing IVF again or finding donor embryos.