If you have frozen eggs in a clinic in the UK for example you can certainly ship your eggs to other clinics as long as the documentation is correct and also the storage period of those eggs have not expired or close to the expiry. If you have eggs frozen in a country outside UK or vice versa, you want to take your eggs from UK to other countries, you must check the country that the treatment will take place, the regulations and whether they would allow the eggs to enter the country as an import or as a distribution because the regulations in different countries are different certain countries may require require certain tests or have been done before you had those eggs frozen and therefore it’s very important that you find the clinic that you want to do your treatment and make sure that the country you’re taking the eggs from and the country that’s receiving the eggs and their regulations would allow this.
With regards to donor eggs, Cryos egg bank continuously delivers eggs to many countries and we have the import/export license. We also do social egg freezing and we transfer the eggs safely through shipments that we do on a daily basis.
We can ship the eggs to other clinics, however you need to remember that law is different in every country. It is easier to move eggs within the European Union and we would need for authorisation from the Ministry of Health. Keep in mind that moving eggs around is also an extra risk and you need to pay attention to quality and standards of the procedure at the lab that is receiving eggs. They must proceed with the same thawing protocol.
Once the eggs are frozen, they can be shipped very easily. Eggs are never thawed out, the eggs are in a larger, larger freezer tank in the clinic. Then once you want to ship them to another clinic they place them into a smaller container still frozen, and then the shipping process starts; many courier services out there that will ship eggs as well as embryos or sperm. They can update you at every stage of the transport process. Let’s say the eggs have been picked up from one clinic, the eggs are on transit, and then the eggs have arrived at the other clinic safely.
Once the eggs arrive at the other clinic, they’re taken out of the smaller container and then placed into their larger freezing tank to be frozen until you’re ready to use them. Here in the US, every state has different rules or regulations. In some states it’s very easy to ship eggs into; states such as New York are very difficult. You have to have a New York State tissue license, if you don’t, then we as physicians will have to write a letter to the New York Department of Health stating why the person wants to ship her eggs into New York and they will typically always grant that case, but most states when you want to ship eggs or embryos is not a problem whatsoever.
It is important that the receiving clinic has all the information about your eggs because they want to make sure they have all the proper material that is needed to thaw the eggs properly. Typically, all clinics use the same media but some clinics are different, so that’s why it’s important that you have the information how many eggs are frozen, what was their freezing technique? What is their thawing technique? So that your receiving clinic can receive that information and make sure they are able to thaw your eggs successfully.
We have the possibility of shipping the eggs all over the European Union because as a clinic, we have a special license for that.
In case the patient treatment is planned in a country outside the European Union, we will need special approval by the authorities, which we also get. So shipping the eggs to another country is no issue for us.
