What If Your IVF Problems Could Have Been Prevented?
IVF Lawsuit
If you experienced a serious problem in your IVF journey, ranging from losing embryos to mix-ups, we want to hear your story. Contact our team to talk things through.
What Could Go
Wrong With IVF?
So many things:
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IVF Mix-Ups: where a woman is implanted with the wrong embryo
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Embryo Loss: where a viable embryo doesn’t survive at the clinic due to some preventable reason (ex: the power goes out and the back up generators fail, so embryos in the fridge don’t survive)
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PGT-A Testing: where a parent made the decision to terminate an embryo after genetic testing came back as problematic – but is the test really as accurate as advertised?
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Other Stuff: where every woman’s IVF journey is unique, but crazy, preventable things can still happen.
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IVF Mix-Ups
It may be weird to think that even the most highly reputed IVF clinics can get things seriously wrong – as in, implanting a woman with the wrong embryo. Yes, really, IT HAPPENS.
I know you’re thinking “What the heck? I paid all this money, followed EVERY step, checked every box, did all my research…” And yes, other women have been just as diligent as you, but still: it happened to them.
Krystena Murray, a Caucasian woman who gave birth to a dark-skinned newborn (the sperm donor was Caucasian with blond hair and blue eyes). After five months of loving the boy as her own, she had to give him back to his biological parents. She sued the Georgia fertility clinic in February 2025 for the mistake.1
Even as recent as February 2026, a couple in Florida are suing the fertility clinic that handled their embryos, after the woman was implanted with the wrong embryo. The couple, who are both white, gave birth to a child that appeared to be a different race. Testing confirmed the baby had “no genetic relationship” to either parent.2
“The emotional trauma produced by such a scenario is impossible to comprehend: desperately wanting to celebrate the miracle that is birth while battling utter shock and confusion,” the woman’s sister wrote. “Not to mention, being unable to talk to family and friends about their grief. This complex situation brings up multiple questions: Who and where are the baby’s biological parents? Where are Tiffany and Steve’s embryos? Were their embryos implanted into someone else? Do Tiffany and Steve have living breathing children in this world? The possibilities are hard to fathom.”2
That’s what civil lawsuits are for – holding negligent IVF clinics accountable for not taking the utmost care when it comes to your child (and your future). You put every ounce of your being into this – so why should your clinic get off the hook for not taking care of you?
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Embryo Loss
Mistakes in IVF aren’t “just bad luck” – it’s preventable harm. Or it should be, except the industry isn’t regulated. Unlike hospitals, IVF clinics are not legally bound to adhere to failsafe protocols. Neither are they required to report even cataclysmic mishaps involving avoidable embryo loss.3 Families deserve the truth and a way forward. We stand with them to demand better standards and regulatory enforcement of real accountability.
If your embryo was lost in an IVF facility for preventable reasons (not from natural pregnancy or because the IVF procedure didn’t “take”) you aren’t alone. An embryo loss lawsuit may be able to help.
A pivotal international analysis of people affected by adverse IVF incidents was conducted in 2024 by NAPGO (the North American Proceedings in Gynecology and Obstetrics): of 205 participants, 205 IVF incidents were identified involving human error affecting 307 people + resulting in 76 lawsuits worldwide. Embryo swapping topped the list, followed by discarded embryos.4
Many women think this would never happen to them – until it does:
A Los Angeles fertility clinic in 2023 forgot to label an entire batch of 16 fertilized eggs belonging to Marissa Calhoun, whose struggle to collect eggs had been long and grueling with one failed IVF attempt: all 16 healthy embryos were recklessly discarded.5
In 2018, a freezer malfunctioned at an Ohio clinic:
“One Saturday night, when the clinic wasn’t staffed, temperatures started to rise in the liquid nitrogen storage tank where more than 4,000 eggs and embryos were stored.”6
“’Maybe if enough of us speak out, there will be more regulation, there will be more protocol put into place,’ said Marissa Calhoun, 36, who sued her Los Angeles fertility clinic in the fall [of 2025], alleging that the embryos she and her partner intended to use to start a family had been discarded by mistake. ‘That’s my only hope.’”7
PGT-A Testing
After years of being unable to have a baby, you decide that it is time to save your money, take on a second job, and/or borrow money so that you can try to have a baby using in vitro fertilization (IVF). Your emotions are ping-ponging as you begin the process in hopes of having your miracle baby as soon as possible when you learn of an add-on to the IVF process called PGT-A, or preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy.
You are informed that PGT-A is highly advantageous and has a very high degree of accuracy, and that you should purchase the test to determine whether your embryos are genetically “normal” or “abnormal”. You also are told that PGT-A increases the chance of pregnancy, decreases the chance of miscarriage, and increases the success of IVF, among other benefits. With promises like that, you decide that PGT-A is worth the additional cost of around $5,000, even if your insurance company will not pay for it.
But is it?
PGT-A is advertised by the genetic testing companies as a genetic test that purports to analyze the chromosomal makeup of fertilized human embryos by screening for chromosomal abnormalities. Consumers undergoing IVF are frequently sold PGT-A as an add-on test costing thousands of dollars and not typically covered by insurance. The complaints that have been filed in federal courts allege misrepresentations by the defendants regarding PGT-A, including that it increases the success of IVF, increases the chance of a healthy IVF pregnancy, decreases the chance of miscarriage, reduces the time to pregnancy, and increases live birth rates, all while failing to disclose its limitations, or that PGT-A is unproven and not established by science. The lawsuits also allege that the defendants make certain assertions concerning the accuracy of their respective tests that leave out other important information such that the assertions are misleading.8
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How Do I Know If My IVF Problem Was Due to Negligence?
It’s possible you might not know why your IVF journey ended up the way that it did, or if the problem was preventable. Not every bad outcome, however, is a result of negligence. If a clinic has failed basic safeguards, negligence is likely and you may want to speak with a fertility negligence lawyer.
The NIH proposes that resolutions going forward should include strict implementation and compliance with safety protocols, sufficient staffing and training, and untried/ novel methods of specimen labeling and tracking. But most important is knowing the errors exist to determine their cause + avoid future errors.9 Without regulation, it’s hit-and-miss.
How Can Any of This Happen?
Remember, the industry is not regulated + reporting mishaps isn’t enforced. Besides transferring the wrong embryo or discarding healthy embryos without a parent’s consent, there are storage failures (without a backup generator), mislabeled living specimens, faulty genetic testing that can lead to wrongful embryo discarding.
“IVF clinics face numerous operational and legal challenges, which come at great emotional, reputational, and financial costs to patients and providers,” the study concluded.9
You’re Not Alone.
How Can A Case for Women Help You?
It’s wrong for neglect to come between you and your IVF dreams after you’ve devoted time, money, and emotion to starting a family. Contact us, because you may be able to take legal action and we want to help you look into an IVF lawyer.
We’re here to help, 24/7/365, at no charge (ever). Some of us have been in your shoes + we know “devastating” doesn’t quite cover it.
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Sources
- Priya Sridhar and Elizabeth Chuck, “Georgia woman sues fertility clinic for implanting wrong embryo after she birthed another couple’s baby,” NBC News, February 18, 2025.
- Skyler Shepard, “Florida couple sues fertility clinic after discovering baby girl isn’t biologically theirs,” KA TV, January 21, 2026.
- Emi Nietfeld, “America’s IVF Failure,” The Atlantic, May 2, 2024.
- Anar Murphy, PhD and Michael Collins, PhD, “Legal Case Study of Severe IVF Incidents Worldwide: Causes, Consequences, and High Emotional, Financial, and Reputational Costs to Patients and Providers,” NAPGO/ North American Proceedings in Gynecology and Obstetrics, June 20, 2024.
- Doc Louallen, Rachel Rosenbaum, Laura Coburn, and Zoe Chevalier, “Inside IVF mix-ups that left women carrying embryos that weren’t theirs,” ABC News, March 7, 2025.
- Laurel Wamsley, “Ohio Fertility Clinic Says 4,000 Eggs and Embryos Destroyed When Freezer Failed,” NPR, March 28, 2018.
- Leticia Juarez, “Couple files lawsuit accusing SoCal fertility clinic of throwing away their embryos,” ABC 7 Eyewitness News, September 17, 2024.
- Paulson, R. “Hidden in plain sight: the overstated benefits and underestimated losses of potential implantations associated with advertised PGT-A success rates,” National Library of Medicine/PubMed: Human Reproduction, Vol. 35, Issue 3, p. 490-493, (March 2020).
- Staff, “NIH Implementation of Executive Order on Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research,” NIH/ National Institutes of Health, June 18, 2024.
WE WEAR THIS BADGE PROUDLY. Because, in a time when legal services are still dominated by men, only a Women Owned Business can bring the woman’s perspective to issues that disproportionately affect women.
We are the ones, far more than men, who are injured by sexual assault, financial scams, the gender pay gap, toxic chemicals, and the misguided practices of powerful pharmaceutical companies.
