Moving Cryopreserved Embryos, Eggs, or Sperm

April 1, 2021

Dear Patients,

We have some exciting news: Virginia Fertility & IVF, formerly Reproductive Medicine and Surgery Center of Virginia, is moving to a new state-of-the-art facility only 1 mile away.  Our new practice venue will be 4100 Olympia Circle, Suite 201, in Charlottesville. The new location will offer a number of improvements, including brand new laboratories and cryostorage space designed and equipped to provide the most advanced technologies available.

Cryopreserved embryos, eggs, or sperm at Virginia Fertility & IVF

During the month of June 2021, we plan to move all frozen specimens to our new practice location, where they will remain safely in storage, just as they have been in our existing location.  We have previous experience successfully moving specimens from our previous IVF laboratory at the University of Virginia to our present location in 2005. Although you can be assured that we will take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of your specimens, and we will maintain the same meticulous attention to detail we give to all specimens in our care, please understand that the transport of frozen specimens involves certain risks. The specimens will remain locked within their liquid nitrogen tanks during the transportation 1 mile away to our new location.  But, for example, if any of the specimen’s thaw during transport, or an accident occurred, they may be damaged or destroyed.  Virginia Fertility & IVF cannot guarantee the security of the specimens during transportation, the survival of the specimens post-thaw, or conception or successful pregnancy using the transferred specimens.

If you choose not to have your specimens transported to our new laboratory, the other option is to ship your cryopreserved eggs, embryos or sperm to a third-party commercial storage facility.  Of course, that also involves transport of your specimens to a new site and the same shipping risks would apply.  One reputable commercial storage facility is Reprotech- information at  www.reprotech.com  You will be responsible for contacting Reprotech or any other third-party storage facility and arranging for storage payment and shipping through them if you choose not to have your specimens transported to our new IVF laboratory.

We will be unable to keep any frozen specimens at our old location.  Please understand that if we do not receive other instructions from you, your frozen specimens will be transferred to our new location.    Please call us immediately if you have any questions, if you wish to transfer your frozen specimens to another facility, or if you want us to discard or donate your frozen specimens.  You must call us before May 1, 2021 at 434-220-6620 and request the appropriate forms to either discard, donate or ship out.

 For patients that are continuing storage with us, we have also included our credit card authorization form to make recurring storage payments easier.

Thank you for your support

We will open in our new location in July 2021.  Until then, we will continue to operate in our current locations.  We are excited about our move and the many improvements it will make possible.  Please be sure to call us about any question or concerns 434-220-6620.

We look forward to seeing you in our new location soon!

Sincerely,

Dr. Scott Purcell, Ph.D., HCLD, Laboratory Director

Virginia Fertility & IVF