IVF Courier Services, UK and Worldwide

What an IVF Courier Actually Does

An IVF courier moves frozen reproductive material between clinics. Not parcels. One person collects your embryos, eggs or sperm from the releasing laboratory, carries them in a vapour phase dry shipper at −196°C, and hands them to the receiving embryologist. The tank travels in the aircraft cabin as hand baggage. It is never checked in and never sent as freight.

That is the part people picture. Most of the work happens before it. The receiving clinic confirms in writing that it will accept the material. The releasing clinic confirms your consent is current and covers that destination. Where material leaves the UK, the HFEA's export requirements sit with the clinic rather than with us, and that timeline usually sets the collection date rather than the other way round.

At airport security we present the documentation and request manual inspection. We do not permit the tank through an X-ray scanner. Where manual inspection cannot be secured at a particular airport, the shipment does not travel that day.

We carry an MVE SC 4/3 vapour phase dry shipper with a validated hold time of up to 21 days. A long-haul flight uses a fraction of that. The margin is what absorbs a cancelled connection or a day lost at customs without the material ever being at risk. Every courier holds UN3373 qualification, and the company operates an ISO 9001 quality management system.

Below are the six material types we handle. As a company we have completed more than 1,250 transfers to date, across over 30 countries.