Embryo Adoption in Canada: A Hopeful Path to Parenthood
Key Takeaways
- Embryo adoption lets recipients carry a pregnancy using embryos donated by families who completed their IVF treatment.
- Beginnings Family Services started Canada’s first national open embryo donation program in 2010.
- The program is open: donors and recipients agree on contact, from occasional updates to ongoing relationships.
- Selling embryos is illegal in Canada. Recipients cover process costs; an unfunded FET at Markham is $2,500 plus medications.
- Matching through Beginnings typically takes 6 to 18 months, depending on preferences.
For most people starting fertility treatment, the goal is a pregnancy using their own eggs, sperm, and embryos. After years of fertility treatments, unsuccessful IVF cycles, recurrent pregnancy loss, age-related fertility challenges, or certain medical conditions, some individuals and couples start looking at other ways to build a family: egg donation, sperm donation, surrogacy, or adoption.
One option remains far less known despite helping many Canadian families: embryo adoption. Markham Fertility Center supports patients through this path in partnership with Beginnings Family Services, the agency that established Canada’s first national open embryo donation program.
What Is Embryo Adoption?
Embryo adoption, also called embryo donation, allows individuals and couples to experience pregnancy and childbirth using embryos created during another family’s IVF treatment and donated after childbearing was complete.
The donated embryos are transferred legally and medically to the recipient, who then undergoes a frozen embryo transfer (FET) in hopes of achieving pregnancy. Unlike traditional adoption, the recipient parent experiences pregnancy, childbirth, and bonding from the earliest stage of the child’s life.
Embryo Adoption vs Embryo Donation: What’s the Difference?
Both terms describe the same medical procedure: the transfer of a donated embryo to a recipient. The difference sits in how the process is facilitated.
| Embryo donation | Embryo adoption | |
| Facilitator | Often arranged through a fertility clinic | Facilitated by an adoption agency such as Beginnings |
| Matching | May be anonymous or clinic-matched | Recipients review donor profiles and both parties choose each other |
| Openness | Contact between families varies, historically often anonymous | Built around openness, with contact agreed between donors and recipients |
| Counselling | Standard fertility counseling | Counseling plus psychosocial assessment, drawing on the agency’s placement experience |
In Canada, both routes fall under the same federal law, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. The adoption model adds a layer of screening, counseling, and openness borrowed from decades of adoption practice.
Where Donated Embryos Come From
Many IVF patients create more embryos than they end up using. Years after completing their family, they may still have embryos in frozen storage, and at that point they face a decision:
- Continue paying for storage
- Donate the embryos to medical research
- Discard them
- Donate them to another family
For many people, helping another individual become a parent feels like the most meaningful of the 4. Embryo adoption connects those families with individuals and couples hoping to become parents.
Who Considers Embryo Adoption?
Recipients come to embryo adoption from many directions:
- Repeated IVF failures, where creating genetically related embryos is no longer feasible
- Diminished ovarian reserve or premature ovarian insufficiency
- Age-related fertility decline
- Patients who would need both donor eggs and donor sperm, for whom embryo adoption is often more accessible
- Single parents by choice
- Same-sex couples
- Individuals with genetic conditions they don’t wish to pass on
- Multiple miscarriages linked to embryo quality
Beginnings welcomes single and partnered applicants, with no restrictions based on religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. The main requirement: the recipient can carry a pregnancy and works with a fertility clinic willing to perform the transfer.
Why Families Donate Their Embryos
For donors, the decision is deeply personal. Many spent years struggling with infertility before achieving their family, and their remaining embryos carry the weight of that journey.
Continuing storage can feel indefinite, and discarding embryos is emotionally difficult for many. Some find meaning in donating embryos for research; others prefer knowing that their embryos may help another family experience what they did.
The Beginnings embryo donor program was established in 2010 to give these families that option. The program’s first baby was born in 2013, and more than 96 babies have been born since, with over 178 donor families participating. Beginnings currently facilitates about 10 placements a year.
An Open, Child-Centred Approach
Historically, many embryo donation programs operated anonymously. Beginnings applies principles learned through decades of adoption practice and places the future child at the center of every decision, on the view that access to genetic information, family history, and identity benefits donor-conceived children.
Beginnings facilitates direct relationships between donor and recipient families. The level of contact depends on what everyone involved wants:
- Occasional updates and photographs
- Email communication
- Sharing medical information
- Virtual meetings
- Ongoing relationships between genetic siblings
- Future opportunities for the children to connect
How the Matching Process Works
Intended parents undergo consultations, counseling, medical screening, and psychosocial assessments. Donors complete detailed social and medical histories.
Recipients then review non-identifying donor profiles containing:
- Ethnic and racial background
- Physical characteristics
- Educational background
- Medical and family history
- Fertility history
- Embryo grading information
- PGT testing results, when available
- Preferences on openness and future contact
Once both parties express interest, Beginnings facilitates conversations, counseling, and an introductory meeting before either side commits.
The Role of Markham Fertility Center
Beginnings facilitates the adoption side of the process, and the medical side requires a fertility clinic. Not every clinic accepts embryos created in an outside laboratory; Markham Fertility Centre has extensive experience working with donated and externally created embryos.
| Beginnings Family Services | Markham Fertility Centre |
| Donation intake and donor social/medical histories | Fertility evaluation of the recipient |
| Matching and donor profile review | Review of embryo reports with the specialist |
| Counseling and psychosocial assessments | Frozen embryo transfer planning and the transfer itself |
| Legal process coordination | Shipment coordination when needed |
| Openness and contact agreements | Pregnancy monitoring and early prenatal care |
Before any transfer, recipients complete a fertility evaluation covering uterine health, hormone levels, and conditions such as fibroids or uterine scarring. Once a match is identified, the fertility specialist reviews the specific embryo information with the recipient: embryo age, freezing method, grading, and genetic testing results all feed into individualized counseling and expected success rates.
All donor screening follows Health Canada’s Safety of Sperm and Ova Regulations, which set requirements for genetic and infectious disease testing.
Legal and Cost Considerations in Canada
Selling embryos is illegal in Canada under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, so donors receive no payment. Embryo donation and adoption agreements are an essential part of the process, and it’s considered best practice for donors and intended parents to each have independent legal advice from a reproductive lawyer.
What recipients can expect to pay:
| Cost item | What to expect |
| Beginnings service fees | The agency charges fees consistent with its non-profit status; a reserve fund exists for clients who can’t afford services |
| Frozen embryo transfer at Markham Fertility Centre | $2,500 for an unfunded cycle, plus medications, generally under $400 |
| Storage and transportation | Process costs typically covered by the recipient |
| Independent legal advice | Billed by the reproductive lawyer each party retains |
The Ontario Fertility Program funds one IVF cycle per lifetime for Ontario residents; whether a donated-embryo transfer qualifies depends on your situation, so confirm your eligibility with the clinic’s team.
For patients who would otherwise need both donor eggs and donor sperm, embryo adoption is generally a more affordable route than creating embryos through double donation.
Is Embryo Adoption Right for You?
Choosing embryo adoption means coming to terms with carrying and raising a child who isn’t genetically yours. For most recipients, that’s the emotional threshold of the entire process, and it deserves as much attention as the medical steps.
Counseling is built into the Beginnings process for exactly this reason. It helps intended parents work through their motivations, their feelings about genetic connection, and how they’ll talk to their child about their origins.
One Markham Fertility Center patient who built her family through the Beginnings program put the starting point simply: ask yourself why you want to be a parent. If the answer is to love and nurture a child, embryo adoption can be a strong option. Her story is told in Building a Family at 43 with Embryo Donation.
Timelines and Realistic Expectations
Some recipients find a match quickly. Others will wait longer, depending on their preferences around embryo characteristics, genetics, cultural background, or donor criteria. Beginnings reports a typical timeframe of approximately 6 to 18 months.
Embryos that look strongest on paper don’t always result in pregnancy, and embryos with less-than-ideal grading can still result in healthy births. Success depends on both the embryo and the person carrying the pregnancy.
Final Thoughts
Embryo adoption connects one family’s completed fertility treatment with another family’s beginning. Donors resolve a difficult decision about their remaining embryos, recipients get to experience pregnancy and parenthood, and the child grows up with access to their genetic story. Through its collaboration with Beginnings Family Services, Markham Fertility Centre supports patients through every step, from the first evaluation to early prenatal care.
This article is for education only and does not replace medical, legal, or counselling advice for your specific situation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is embryo adoption legal in Canada?
Yes. Embryo donation is regulated under the federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act. Donating embryos is legal; selling them is not, so no money changes hands for the embryos themselves.
How much does embryo adoption cost?
Donors aren’t paid. Recipients cover the Beginnings service fees, storage and transportation costs, independent legal advice, and their frozen embryo transfer, which is $2,500 plus medications for an unfunded cycle at Markham Fertility Centre. For patients who would otherwise need both donor eggs and donor sperm, it’s generally more affordable than double-donation IVF.
Can single people or same-sex couples apply?
Yes. Beginnings accepts single and partnered applicants without restrictions based on sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, religion, or ethnicity. The recipient needs to be able to carry a pregnancy.
How long does the matching process take?
Beginnings reports a typical range of 6 to 18 months. Specific preferences around embryo characteristics, genetics, or cultural background can shorten or lengthen the wait.
Will my child be able to know their genetic origins?
That’s the point of the open model. Donors and recipients agree on the level of contact, ranging from medical updates to ongoing relationships, and the program is designed so that donor-conceived children can access their genetic information and family history.
Sources
- Prohibitions related to Purchasing Reproductive Material and Purchasing or Selling In Vitro Embryos, Health Canada.
- Open Embryo Donor/Recipient Program, Beginnings Family Services.
- Embryo Donation, Markham Fertility Centre.
- Donor and Surrogacy Program, Markham Fertility Centre.
- Frequently Asked Questions, Beginnings Family Services.
- Frozen Embryo Transfer, Markham Fertility Centre.
- Building a Family at 43 with Embryo Donation, Markham Fertility Centre