Embryo Adoption
A new path to growing
your family.
Embryo Adoption
A new path to growing
your family.
What is Embryo Adoption?
Hundreds of thousands—possibly millions—of frozen embryos remain in storage across the United States, with estimates ranging from 600,000 to over 1.5 million. For many families, embryo adoption offers a meaningful opportunity to give these embryos a chance at life while helping others experience the joy of parenthood.
Embryo Adoption represents a life-affirming option for patients who, for a variety of reasons, cannot or do not wish to use their frozen embryos left over from a prior IVF cycle. Our donors make the selfless decision that instead of destroying/ discarding their embryos that they would like to give the embryos a chance at life, and share that gift with an adopting family.
Where do the Embryos Come From?
During a cycle of IVF a woman’s eggs are fertilized in an IVF Lab and these fertilized eggs are then incubated for several days until they are ready to be transferred into her uterus or frozen for future use.
Unfertilized eggs can also be frozen and commercial egg and sperm banks are used by many fertility clinics to help patients conceive. Eggs and sperm do not have any special moral value and patients often decide to discard their frozen eggs or frozen sperm when they no longer plan to pursue any additional treatments. However, patients often struggle with the decision of what to do with their “leftover” frozen embryos.
Why families choose Rejoice for embryo adoption
1. EXPERTISE
Our embryology team leads the field in thawing and caring for donated embryos—even those preserved for decades. Our success includes the delivery of three Guinness World Record breaking babies.
2. EXPERIENCE
With thousands of frozen embryo transfer cycles completed, our team brings deep experience and dedicated support to every patient pursuing embryo adoption.
3. EXCELLENCE
Every embryo is handled with the utmost care. In 2021, Rejoice Fertility became the first IVF program in the Greater Knoxville area accredited by The Joint Commission.
4. ENVIRONMENT
Our state-of-the-art IVF laboratory and clinical space was designed for your comfort—featuring private rooms for pre-transfer conversations with Dr. Gordon and our team.
5. EMPATHY
At Rejoice, we believe the only embryo that cannot make a baby is the embryo that isn’t transferred—and that begins by giving it a chance.
Quick Links for Embryo Adoption
Frequently Asked Questions
During a cycle of IVF a woman’s eggs are fertilized in an IVF Lab and these fertilized eggs are then incubated for several days until they are ready to be transferred into her uterus or frozen for future use. Unfertilized eggs can also be frozen and commercial egg and sperm banks are used by many fertility clinics to help patients conceive. Eggs and sperm do not have any special moral value and patients often decide to discard their frozen eggs or frozen sperm when they no longer plan to pursue any additional treatments. However, patients often struggle with the decision of what to do with their “leftover” frozen embryos.
Embryo Adoption represents a life-affirming option for patients who, for a variety of reasons, cannot or do not wish to use their frozen embryos left over from a prior IVF cycle. Our donors make the selfless decision that instead of destroying/ discarding their embryos (which is what happens in the majority of the clinics), that they would like to give the embryos a chance at life, and share that gift with an adopting family.
Some of the donated embryos are from our affiliated on-site fertility practice, Rejoice Fertility. Some are from donors who are currently working with one of our affiliated Embryo Adoption organizations and wish to have the embryos stored with Rejoice while awaiting matching. Some are embryos previously donated to fertility clinics that are unable to provide matching services or were abandoned so the clinics have turned over the custodianship of these embryos to Rejoice for matching through our affiliated Embryo Adoption organizations.
Lastly, some are from donors who have heard about the outstanding Donor Embryo pregnancy rates at Rejoice Fertility and Rejoice IVF Lab and want their embryos to have the best chance at life. Regardless of where they came from, we are happy to help be a part of their journey.
Although many IVF clinics offer Embryo Adoption / Embryo Donation, none has the depth of experience found at Rejoice Fertility. There are over 400,000 IVF procedures performed in the United States every year, yet there are fewer than 3,000 cycles of Embryo Adoption performed yearly.
Rejoice IVF Lab’s Success rates with FETs performed here in Knoxville with donor embryos are greater than 50% per transfer. We are proud to be higher than the average rate in the rest of the nation, and our embryologists having helped to bring well over 1000 babies into this world!
Yes, there are both medical and non-medical restrictions.
Medical restrictions include no contraindication to pregnancy as well as screening criteria that address a patient’s age, BMI and her ability to carry a pregnancy. Patients who are interested in pursuing Embryo Adoption need to undergo some basic tests to determine if there are any issues that would need to be addressed prior to undergoing a frozen embryo transfer with adopted embryos.
Medical clearance prior to Embryo Adoption is determined by the fertility physician at the clinic where a patient plans to have her embryo transfer and usually involves a consultation to review a patient’s medical/reproductive history, a pelvic ultrasound, an assessment of the inside of the uterus (saline sonogram, hysteroscopy or hysterosalpingogram), and basic laboratory screening for general health including evidence of STIs such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV. Different clinics may have different restrictions in terms of patient age, BMI and specific tests required to determine that a patient is medically cleared for a frozen embryo transfer with adopted embryos. Patients who have had recent fertility testing may not need to repeat ultrasounds or other testing to be medically cleared for Embryo Adoption at Rejoice Fertility.
The non-medical restrictions are determined by the affiliated Embryo Adoption organizations. Rejoice Fertility is a medical practice, and we rely upon our affiliated organizations to screen and educate couples interested in Embryo Adoption separate from any medical evaluation.
Similarly, Rejoice Embryo Rescue (RER) is not an “adoption agency” but rather RER could be thought of as the “orphanage” that coordinates receiving and storing of donated embryos. All adopting parents must be approved through one of our affiliated faith-based Embryo Adoption organizations. These affiliates have similar requirements to each other, and the most common requirements are:
– Married heterosexual couple
– Wife must be medically cleared to carry her own pregnancy (no surrogates/gestational carriers)
– Wife’s age must be maximum of 48 years old
– Wife & Husband must complete and get approval from a Home Evaluation or Home Study.
Although Embryo Adoption is an excellent option for many couples, there are situations where a woman is not a good candidate for Embryo Adoption.
For patients seeking to have their frozen embryo transfer at Rejoice Fertility here in Knoxville, the first step is to have a consultation appointment (in person or virtual) to discuss your medical history and interest in Embryo Adoption.
Follow this link to schedule a free 15- minute virtual consultation to find out if Embryo Adoption may be a good option for you.
Rejoice Embryo Rescue (RER) was created to coordinate the receipt and secure storage of human embryos awaiting ‘adoption’ by couples pursuing a future frozen embryo transfer with these donated embryos. RER works collaboratively with its affiliated faith-based Embryo Adoption organizations to facilitate frozen embryo transfers of donated embryos either at Rejoice Fertility in Knoxville, TN (where we have significantly higher live birth rates from donated embryos per transfer than the rest of the nation) or at the clinic of your choice.
No, the donors have permanently surrendered all rights to the embryos and any child(ren) born from them.
Title 36 of the Domestic Relations Tennessee Code § 36-2-401 – § 36-2-403 sets the parameters for Parentage of Children Born of Donated Embryos and is closely followed in the consent form you will be signing (Consent for Receipt of Donated Embryos) as well as in the consent that the donor family has already signed with us (Consent to Donate Embryos).
Nightlight’s Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program: Link to Nightlight Snowflakes Pricing
- Full Service (all services offered)
- May choose RER donors or also has their own donors for an increased fee
Flourish Adoption Ministries Link to Flourish Adoption Ministries Pricing
- Full Service (all services offered)
- May choose RER donors or also has their own donors for an increased fee
Christian Adoption Consultants Pricing | Christian Adoption Consultants
- Limited Services, acceptable if choosing RER Donors, does not have own donors
- Donors, Services offered include Open Donor Agreements, Home Study Review, Education/Training, Counseling & Support Services, Consulting Package
Embryo Adoption Services of Cedar Park Link to Cedar Park Pricing
- Full Service (all services offered)
- May choose RER donors or also has their own donors for an increased fee
Embryos Alive Link to Embryos Alive Pricing
- Full Service (all services offered)
- May choose RER donors or also has their own donors for an increased fee
Lauren Wilson LMSW (Flourish Consulting Services) Link to Lauren Wilson Pricing
- Limited Services, acceptable if choosing RER Donors – Does not have own donors
- Services offered include the required Education/Training, Counseling/Therapy Services, Consultations
- Directed Donation Review – Needed if you have privately adopted embryos through an agency or person that is not one of the approved Rejoice affiliates, and you would like to bring them to Rejoice for transfer. This is a review of your previously obtained embryo adoption contract.
Embryo adoption is complex because the embryo is legally considered “property” rather than a child under the law in most jurisdictions. Embryo adoption is not strictly an “adoption” because the legal definition of adoption refers to a child who is already born. The proper terminology in TN is “embryo relinquishment and transfer of legal custodianship.” However, as we are helping put these unborn children into families, we are comfortable using the word ‘adoption’ throughout our literature and website.
There are a multitude of reasons that couples choose to pursue Embryo Adoption. Some couples have infertility but are not comfortable with creating embryos through IVF. Other couples have tried everything else and Embryo Adoption is an answer to their prayers. Some have genetic disorders they don’t want to pass on to their children; others have a heart for adoption and feel called to help the embryos waiting in limbo for a chance at life.
Many patients also love that Embryo Adoption allows you to be pregnant, experience childbirth and control the prenatal environment that your unborn child experiences. In many ways Embryo Adoption is an easier process compared with traditional domestic adoption, in addition, normally it is a faster process as well as usually much less expensive.
Rejoice Embryo Rescue (RER) is a Tennessee LLC that was created to coordinate the receipt and secure storage of human embryos awaiting adoption by couples pursuing a future frozen embryo transfer with these donated embryos. RER works collaboratively with its affiliated faith- based Embryo Adoption organizations to facilitate frozen embryo transfers of donated embryos either at Rejoice Fertility in Knoxville, TN or at the clinic of the recipient couple’s choosing.
RER is not an Embryo Adoption organization and does not match donors and recipients. Instead,
RER works collaboratively with Embryo Adoption organizations which currently includes Nightlight’s Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program, Embryo Adoption Services of Cedar Park, Flourish Adoption Ministries, Embryos Alive, Christian Adoption Consultants and Lauren Wilson LMSW (Flourish Consulting Services). All matching is coordinated by one of these organizations.
We love all of our affiliates! They each bring something unique to the table and each offer different price points for the different levels of “hand holding” throughout the process. Some of you are already with one of our affiliates, and that’s great! If you are not already involved with one of our affiliates, we encourage all adopting families to look through what each affiliate offers and make that decision for yourself. We are happy to be walking through this journey with you and your chosen affiliate! Please consider your needs when choosing your affiliate.
Embryo donors decide the type of contact (if any) that they wish to have with you as the recipient couple adopting their embryos. Every embryo donor profile lists this information and is marked according to their wishes as one of the (4) types listed below:
“Nonidentified” (formerly known as Anonymous): You will see de-identified donor profiles. You will not know the identity of the donor family, but you will have access to the same medical information and photos (if any) provided to us as any of the other types of donations. The donor family will not be given any identifying information about you. Please know that it is possible that future laws enacted in individual states or at a national level may require the disclosure of identities of the donors, recipients, and/or offspring resulting from this donation to any or all parties involved. Given rapidly expanding genetic testing availability, social media, and the potential for changes in law and regulations, there can be no guarantees of anonymity over time between donor linked individuals and/or donor conceived offspring.
“Semi Open/Directed”: The Donating Family will approve the family who is adopting their embryos by working with a consultant at one of our affiliates. After you select a donor, the donating family will decide whether or not to approve the match. An additional agreement (fee paid by adopting family) coordinated by an affiliate will specify contact terms. You will not have any direct contact with the Donating Family, and minimal birth information will be provided to the donors through the affiliate. Once a baby is born you will not have to provide ongoing updates. You will not know the full identities of the Donor Family, and they will not know yours.
“Open/Directed through Agency”: The Donating Family will approve the family who is adopting their embryos by working with a consultant at one of our affiliates. After you select a donor, the donating family will decide whether or not to approve the match. An additional agreement (fee paid by adopting family) coordinated by an affiliate will specify contact terms. The donor family will utilize indirect contact provided through the affiliate for ongoing updates (such as emails, photos through the years) with the adopting family. You will not know the full identities of the Donor Family, and they will not know yours.
“Fully Open/Directed”: The Donating Family will approve the family who is adopting their embryos by working with a consultant at one of our affiliates. After you select a donor, the donating family will decide whether or not to approve the match. An additional agreement (fee paid by adopting family) coordinated by an affiliate will specify contact terms. The donor family will have direct contact with the adopting family for ongoing updates (such as emails, photos, phone calls, possible meetups). Your full identities will be known to the Donating Family, and you will know theirs.
If you chose any form of open or semi-open embryo adoption, then one of our affiliates will be reaching out to the donor couple for their approval of the match, as well as drawing up contracts between you and the donors regarding the agreed upon levels of communication. The donor couple could decline the match, and you would need to choose a new donor.
For all types of embryo adoption with RER embryos, the transfer of legal custodianship of the donated embryos is not complete until the Consent for Receipt of Donated Embryos is signed by both of you AND accepted by Rejoice. The fees for the donor will be collected upon selection, but in the event the Donor Family (in the case of Open) or Rejoice does not approve the transfer of legal custodianship, then you will be refunded the donor fees collected for that particular donor.
Unfortunately, not all embryos survive thawing; and of those that are transferred, the live birth rate is roughly 50% per embryo transfer. We recommend having at least 2 frozen embryos available when going into a cycle. This is not mandatory but helps prevent cycle cancellation at the last minute if your embryos do not survive the thaw. If you choose 2PN or multicell stage embryos, we recommend at least 5. Some profiles have only 1 embryo in them, some profiles have more. There is a limit to the # of RER donor profiles you can reserve at one time (maximum of 3 donors unless previously approved by Rejoice). Rejoice reserves the right to cancel your reservation(s) if you select more without prior approval.
In order to ensure the best outcome for your Embryo Adoption cycle please follow the requirements below:
If you only want to transfer 1 embryo at a time AND you choose blastocyst stage embryos, then you must pick a donor whose embryos are frozen individually (1 frozen per device). We do not refreeze blastocyst stage embryos; a double freeze/thaw at the blastocyst stage can damage the embryo. This applies for both the current cycle AND any future sibling attempts as well.
Yes, but you still have to meet the affiliate requirements (except for home evaluation if you already are the legal owner of the embryos before you join our program), go through an embryo adoption education module, and have your adoption contract reviewed before gaining final approval from one of the affiliates to transfer your adopted embryos to Rejoice. Several of our affiliates offer specialized pricing. As our team has the highest live birth rate per transfer from donated embryos, we don’t blame you for wanting to bring your treasured gifts to the most experienced hands in the nation!
All of us at Rejoice think that every patient should have the freedom of choice regarding which physician they chose for their medical care, so we do allow our adopting families to move their embryos to their clinic of choice.
Of course, we believe that Rejoice offers the best available care in addition to the fact that the embryos are already on site with us, eliminating shipping costs and unnecessary risk to the embryos during shipment. Rejoice IVF Lab, as reported by the CDC, has consistently had a significantly higher live birth rate per transfer with donor embryos than the rest of the nation.
In addition to this proud achievement, our lab is the most experienced in the nation (and likely the world) at handling donated embryos, especially older embryos that others turn away or are unable or unwilling to thaw. Dr. Gordon and Rejoice IVF Laboratory Supervisor Sarah Atkinson hold the last TWO Guinness World Records for “Oldest Human Embryo to be Used Resulting in a Live Birth.” The birth of Thaddeus Pierce (frozen for over 30 years) in July 2025 was a story that circled the globe reaching an audience of several billion people.
If you would like to have your FET at Rejoice, please contact our front office at 865-777-0088. https://rejoicefertility.com/free-consultations
If instead of having your Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) done here in Knoxville, you decide to move RER embryos to your own clinic, there will be an increase in the shipment handling fees on top of the donor fees paid through our database. Currently these fees (only applicable if you want to move your adopted embryos to a different clinic that is not Rejoice) are an additional $3,000 for the 1st set of embryos and $1,500 for additional sets. In addition, you will be asked to pay for yearly storage ($750/yr) retroactive since the embryos originally arrived at Rejoice. You will also be responsible for the shipping fees (around $1,000) charged by Cryoport (the company used to ship embryos). None of these fees apply if the embryos remain at Rejoice for your FET.
RER is supported by the embryology staff of Rejoice IVF Lab, LLC, who provide all needed embryology services such as receiving, shipping, handling and continued storage of embryos.
Rejoice IVF Lab, LLC is accredited by The Joint Commission. We are proud to have their Gold Seal of Approval. Rejoice Fertility, Rejoice IVF Lab, and Rejoice Embryo Rescue (RER) are all onsite together in the same building in Knoxville, TN.
If you adopt embryos from Rejoice, you get one year of free storage once you adopt. After the first year, the storage fee is currently $750/year.
Rejoice Embryo Rescue, LLC (RER) coordinates the screening of embryo donors and the shipping of donated embryos to Knoxville, Tennessee where they are received, stored and made available for matching through the efforts of affiliates.
The Lab – Rejoice IVF Lab, LLC is a Joint Commission accredited IVF laboratory and is responsible for the receipt, storage, shipping and/or thawing and transfer of donated embryos to recipients.
The Clinic – Rejoice Fertility, PLLC, provides medical services to patients seeking to conceive through a variety of treatments including embryo transfers using donated embryos. Per Tennessee State Code, the embryos adopted through RER will have been donated through an embryo relinquishment coordinated by RER to Rejoice Fertility, PLLC. Once an adopting family selects the embryos, and all agreements and consents are signed, Rejoice Fertility, PLLC, will turn permanent legal embryo custodianship to the adopting family.
In October 2024, Rejoice Fertility and Rejoice IVF Lab, LLC relocated into a state-of-the-art nearly 10,000 square ft facility in Farragut, TN that can handle a large volume of fertility procedures. Our new IVF laboratory at Rejoice has a state-of-the-art monitoring system for our cryostorage tanks. This novel system (Cryo-Sentinel) uses infrared imaging to detect early temperature changes in the embryo storage tanks alerting the staff to an issue before it is too late, which can save the embryos from a catastrophic event.
Of course, we believe that Rejoice offers the best available care in addition to the fact that the embryos are already on site with us, eliminating shipping costs and unnecessary risk to the embryos during shipment. Rejoice IVF Lab, as reported by the CDC, has consistently had a significantly higher live birth rate per transfer with donor embryos than the rest of the nation. In addition to this proud achievement, our lab is the most experienced in the nation (and likely the world) at handling donated embryos, especially older embryos that others turn away or are unable or unwilling to thaw.
Dr. Gordon and Rejoice IVF Laboratory Supervisor Sarah Atkinson hold the last TWO Guinness World Record for “Oldest Human Embryo to be Used Resulting in a Live Birth.” The birth of Thaddeus Pierce (frozen for over 30 years) in July 2025 was a story that circled the globe reaching an audience of several billion people.
If you would like to have your FET at Rejoice, please contact our front office at 865-777-0088. https://rejoicefertility.com/free-consultation/
Since 2021 Rejoice IVF Lab has been a Joint Commission accredited IVF lab, which means we have undergone a detailed and comprehensive evaluation process for years to ensure that we are and have been following best practices in all aspects of our IVF Program.
We have robust protocols when embryos arrive in Knoxville to verify each and every embryo storage device upon arrival to our facility. Arriving embryos must be accurately tracked in an inventory and we track our inventory both using paper charts but also in an excel inventory that is backed up onto an encrypted cloud service along with our EDC Embryo Donor Database. A monthly manual backup of our electronic files is performed by our Lab Supervisor onto an encrypted flash drive just in case all other methods of redundancy were to fail.
Our embryo storage tanks are also double alarmed with both temperature alarms, and thermal imagining alarms for early detection of a tank failure. All alarms will call out to our personal cell phones of the lab staff including Dr Gordon if anything goes wrong, ensuring we have 365 days/24 hours a day ability to respond with a human to an emergency. Additionally, our tanks are examined by one of our embryologists (as opposed to relying on electronic means that could fail) 3x per week to test their liquid nitrogen levels. The tanks are normally filled by lab personnel on a weekly or biweekly basis as needed. Our thermal imaging cameras have a twice a day sign off when we are in the lab to ensure tank temperatures are holding steady, and a phone app that we can check on them if we aren’t here.
Lastly, we perform both physical tank canister inventories, as well as cross referencing with the paper files to ensure an accurate inventory. We confirm these with photographs of the cane tabs, then cross reference the photographs across our excel inventory. Prior to an actual thaw, embryo storage devices are checked and double-checked with at least 2 trained technicians witnessing the identification of the embryos before they are thawed and verifying with their signatures. The physician performing the embryo transfer must also sign off on the identification of the devices before the transfer occurs. The devices from the thawed embryos remain attached to the embryology records. Finally, none of Rejoice IVF Lab’s embryologists have ever been involved in any mix-up, misidentification, or mislabeling of embryos.
With embryos, the egg and sperm are already combined before they enter our donation program, so male factor infertility in an adopting family does not matter at all.
Yes! People choose embryo adoption for many different reasons, and not all of them are because they are infertile.
You will need to have a few basic tests performed: A vaginal ultrasound, a saline sonogram to check the inside of the cavity, and a trial embryo transfer (also called a mock transfer).
You can have those tests performed by a fertility clinic in your geographic region if that is more convenient. However, many patients prefer to have these tests done by Dr. Gordon in Knoxville.
No. The vast majority of patients respond predictably to estrogen pills (estrace). If you are in the small group of patients who require an atypical protocol then this can easily be employed in a future cycle.
Yes. BUT you need to have regular cycles and be willing to have closer monitoring during your cycle to ensure we do not miss ovulation. Please note that natural cycles are harder to schedule with a higher likelihood of cancellation if your cycle does not line up to the time frame our lab is open.
Yes – you may see a copy of the consent form here: Click here to view consent
No, Rejoice Fertility, Rejoice IVF Lab, and Rejoice Embryo Rescue are all no-discard facilities, meaning no alive embryo is thrown away. Every embryo that has a chance at life is treasured. Embryos that stop growing or degenerate and are no longer viable are sent for burial at no cost to the donors or recipients.
Yes, our mission is to give every embryo a chance at life, even if they don’t look just like Mom & Dad!
Most of the donor profiles have photos and medical histories for you to view. Both nonidentified (formerly anonymous) and open will have the same amount of information gathered from the donor family. Please note, we cannot control how little or much personal information the donors have decided to share.
For the privacy of our donors, you and/or your affiliate agency will not be granted access to our database until you have received medical clearance, completed your education modules, and received final approval from one of our affiliated embryo adoption agencies.
Yes, there is a $200 non-refundable donor hold fee. You or your affiliated agency may select a donor or donor(s) to place a hold on while you are presented with the options. If your affiliate uses the Hold option, the $200 fee is in addition to the regular donor fees. This hold is for 72 hours, please remember that if you have not finalized the match within that 3-day period, the donor will automatically release back to the adoption pool. In fairness to all of our adopting families, we cannot allow the donors to be held longer than 72 hours (including Saturday and Sunday) without a finalized match. Please keep in mind your match finalization needs to be communicated to us Monday – Friday during business hours.
Yes, here is a good site: https://embryoadoption.org/
Yes, in fact it is recommended by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine that you take this step before embryo adoption. You may do this counseling through any of our affiliates.
Don’t see your question? Email RER@RejoiceIVF.com