The short version
Your embryos are frozen — vitrified — and stored in liquid nitrogen. To move them, they're placed inside a specialised container called a dry shipper that holds them at cryogenic temperature for the entire journey. A dedicated courier then hand-carries that shipper directly from your current clinic or storage facility to its destination, keeping it with them the whole way and never letting it out of their care.
Every step is documented, so there is a continuous record of who held your embryos and the conditions they travelled in — from the moment they are released to the moment they are received.
What keeps embryos safe: the dry shipper
Frozen embryos have to stay extremely cold — roughly −150°C to −196°C — without interruption. That is the job of a dry shipper, sometimes called a vapour shipper.
Unlike an ordinary tank of liquid nitrogen, a dry shipper holds the nitrogen absorbed inside a porous lining, so there is no free-flowing liquid. That makes it safe and approved for air travel, and it holds a stable cryogenic temperature for a week or more — a generous safety margin around any journey.
- No free liquid nitrogen, so it is cleared to fly
- Holds temperature for days, not hours
- Validated and charged before every single trip
- Usually carries a data logger recording temperature the whole way
Personally hand carried — never checked, never X-rayed
This is the part that matters most, and it is where a specialist courier is completely different from a parcel service. Your embryos are never dropped into a shipping network, never checked as baggage, and never sent through airport X-ray screening.
Instead, a named courier travels with the shipper in the cabin, requests a visual inspection at security rather than X-ray, and stays with it through every checkpoint and transfer. It is, quite literally, carried by hand.
Chain of custody and documentation
Before anything moves, the paperwork is prepared: authorisation to release your embryos, identifying details, and the consent your clinics require. As the embryos change hands, each step is signed and logged, creating an unbroken chain of custody.
When your shipment arrives, its identity and condition are confirmed with the receiving clinic or storage facility, and custody is formally transferred. You are kept informed at each stage, so you always know exactly where things stand.
What the journey looks like, step by step
Every transfer is a little different, but the shape is always the same:
- Enquire — you tell us where your embryos are and where they need to go.
- We coordinate — we work directly with your clinic or storage facility to arrange release, documentation and timing.
- Collection and sealing — the embryos are packed into a charged, validated dry shipper and sealed.
- Hand-carried transit — your courier travels with the shipper the whole way.
- Verified handover — identity and condition are confirmed at the destination and custody is transferred.