Implementation of a comprehensive fertility biobanking initiative.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To present the framework of Stanford Fertility and Reproductive Health's comprehensive reproductive biobanking initiatives and the results of the first year of recruitment. DESIGN: Technical description article. SETTING: Academic fertility center. PATIENT(S) Fertility patients >18 years of age. INTERVENTION(S) Enroll the patients interested in research in biobanking protocols. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Patient recruitment and sample inventory from September 2020 to September 2021. RESULT(S) A total of 253 patients have enrolled in the Stanford Fertility and Reproductive Health biobanking initiatives since September 2020. The current inventory consists of 1,176 samples, including serums, plasmas, buffy coats, endometria, maternal deciduae, miscarriage chorionic villi, and human embryos (zygote, cleavage, and blastocyst stages). CONCLUSION(S) This biobanking initiative addresses a critical, unmet need in reproductive health research to make it possible for patients to donate excess embryos and gametes and preserves, for future research, valuable somatic and reproductive tissues that would otherwise be discarded. We present the framework of this biobanking initiative in order to support future efforts of establishing similar biorepositories.