Biocourier

Embryo, egg and sperm shipping

Greece is a destination for assisted reproduction, and a great many people who have treatment here do not live here. That produces a transport problem the clinics see constantly and patients almost never expect: embryos, eggs or sperm frozen in one country and needed in another. We move that material between Greek IVF clinics and laboratories and their counterparts abroad, and the other way round.

In many cases the sample is the only one there is. So the work is not really about the drive or the flight - it is about making sure nothing thaws, and that both clinics have agreed everything before anything is collected.

What we do

We carry cryopreserved material in liquid nitrogen dry shippers we own, UN1977, at −196 °C. Owning them matters: the vessel is prepared and checked by us rather than hired on the day, and the material stays in vapour-phase liquid nitrogen from the moment it leaves one tank until it reaches the other.

Around that, most of the job is coordination:

• We talk to everyone the transfer involves - the clinic, the laboratory, the doctors and the couple - which is what actually simplifies the authorisations.
• We support couples living abroad through the paperwork, which is the part that stalls a transfer when nobody in the country of treatment is chasing it.
• We plan around the transfer date and the clinic’s staff, because a laboratory can only release or receive material when its embryology staff are there to do it.
• Same day and immediate delivery where the route allows it.
• Continuous monitoring, progress updates while it is moving, and the delivery details when it is done.

Things to watch out for

• Start with the two clinics, not with the courier. Each has its own release and acceptance requirements, and the transfer moves at the speed of whichever is slower. We can only book around a date both have agreed.
• Consent is the usual delay. Material created by two people generally needs both of them to authorise its movement, and that has to be in the form the receiving country accepts, not just the sending one.
• The law differs by country, and it is the receiving country’s law that governs what can arrive. What is permitted in Greece is not automatically permitted where the material is going, and clinics abroad will say so before they accept a shipment.
• Ask what state the material is in. Straws, vials, the number of devices and the goblet configuration all change what the shipper needs. The embryology laboratory can tell us in one sentence; guessing costs a day.
• Book earlier than feels necessary. The transport is the short part. The authorisations are not.

Official sources

Check these directly rather than taking anyone’s summary, including ours.

• National Authority for Medically Assisted Reproduction: the Greek state authority that sets and supervises the framework for assisted reproduction.
• National Transplant Organisation (EOM): the Greek competent authority for human tissues and cells.
• UNECE - About the ADR: where liquid nitrogen, UN1977, is classified for road transport.

Tell us which two clinics are involved and where they are, and we will tell you what the transfer needs and how long the paperwork usually takes. Call +30 210 64 66 400 or email info@kanga.gr.