Table 2.

Characteristics of abandoned IVF/ICSI embryo cycles from 1999 to 2009

Patients with abandoned embryo cycles, n	335
Abandoned embryos, n	965
Mean female age, years ± SD (range)	31.6 ± 4.3 (20–42)
Primary/secondary infertility, n/n	203/132
Infertility duration, years ± SD	4.0 ± 1.1
Patients with first time IVF, n (%)	247(73.7%)
Pregnancy rate per transfer cycle (%)	74.4%
Patients abandoning embryo due to legal expiration, n	265
Lost contact	239
Lost contact more than 5 years	234
With contact but without completed documentation	26
Patients abandoning embryos with documentation, n	68
Chose to discard	30
Chose donation for research	38
Divorce or death, n	2
Patients who stored different numbers of embryos, n
1 to 5 embryos	293 (87.5%)
6 to 10 embryos	35 (10.4%)
> 11 embryos	7 (2.1%)