Every year, millions of people face the emotional and physical journey of trying to conceive through in vitro fertilization (IVF) — a process that’s becoming more common and advanced. The global assisted reproductive technology market is expected to grow to over $6 billion by 2030, driven by rising infertility rates, delayed parenthood, and breakthroughs in fertility science and technology.
One of the major players in this rapidly expanding field is CooperSurgical. With decades of experience, this company offers a comprehensive range of IVF devices, genetic testing tools, and clinical solutions trusted by fertility centers worldwide.
However, some of these products have recently sparked concerns among patients and specialists alike, which leads us to examine both the strengths and challenges of CooperSurgical’s offerings in the advancing field of reproductive medicine.
In this review, we’ll take a closer look at:
CooperSurgical Inc. as a company
The range of medical devices and services it offers
The factors IVF patients should consider before choosing CooperSurgical
What is CooperSurgical?
When undergoing IVF, you will probably come across the name CooperSurgical — whether on your embryo testing results, clinic equipment, or even digital platforms you might use throughout your fertility journey.
This company, formerly known as CooperSurgical Fertility and Genomic Solutions and CooperSurgical Fertility Solutions, plays a behind-the-scenes but essential role in the field of reproductive medicine and women’s health. It manufactures many of the tools and technologies that your fertility clinic might rely on, including:
Advanced tools for IVF genetic testing
Cryopreservation systems for safely freezing, transporting, and storing eggs, sperm, and embryos
Core IVF lab equipment (e.g., incubators and embryo culture media)
The company’s commitment to delivering timely and effective care for women, babies, and families has helped it expand its global footprint beyond the CooperSurgical Trumbull location, the company’s headquarters.
Source: CooperSurgical
CooperSurgical locations now span over 100 countries across six continents. From smaller nations like Bosnia and Herzegovina in Europe and Sierra Leone in Africa to major hubs like CooperSurgical Canada in North America and CooperSurgical India in Asia, there’s hardly a corner of the globe without the company’s presence or product in use.
In the U.S. alone, fertility specialists and clinics in over 40 states use CooperSurgical products and technologies, which means the company’s innovations might directly impact the quality of care you receive.
Breaking down CooperSurgical’s core offerings
From fertility and conception to birth control and post-reproductive health, CooperSurgical delivers tools and technologies that support you through every stage of reproductive care. We’ll take a look at the company’s comprehensive portfolio, with a sharper focus on CooperSurgical IVF solutions that your clinic might use throughout your fertility journey.
CooperSurgical medical devices and services fall into three categories, which the company refers to as brands:
Reproductive care
Women’s and family care
Fertility and birth
1. Reproductive care
Source: Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition
CooperSurgical’s reproductive care portfolio centers around Paragard®, the No. 1 prescribed copper intrauterine system (IUS) in the U.S. The company designed this product for women who want long-term, hormone-free contraception, so it offers pregnancy prevention for up to 10 years with over 99% efficacy. Its effects are fully reversible, making it a trusted choice for those who may not be ready to conceive now but want to preserve future fertility.
It’s worth noting that Paragard has recently become the focus of growing legal scrutiny. As of May 2025, over 3,200 lawsuits have been filed against CooperSurgical and its former partner, Teva Pharmaceuticals. These lawsuits claim that the device may break during removal, causing internal injury, the need for surgical intervention, or, in some cases, long-term reproductive harm.
Plaintiffs allege that the manufacturers failed to adequately warn about these risks and overstated the device’s safety in marketing materials. CooperSurgical has denied the allegations, and no final rulings have been made yet.
2. Women’s and family care
CooperSurgical’s women’s health portfolio goes well beyond reproductive planning. It’s designed to support you through every stage of care. While you’re managing ongoing symptoms or seeking answers about your health, these tools aim to make the process easier for you:
Diagnostic and office-based solutions: Tools like Endosee® and LEEP help your doctor screen for and treat conditions like abnormal uterine bleeding or cervical cell changes directly in a clinic setting, so you can avoid unnecessary hospital visits.
Minimally invasive therapies: If you’re dealing with heavy periods or need pelvic support, devices like Mara® and Milex® offer non-hormonal, outpatient options that prioritize comfort and convenience.
Surgical instruments: From uterine manipulators like RUMI® II to skin closure tools like INSORB™, CooperSurgical’s line helps your OB-GYN perform safer, less invasive procedures with your recovery in mind.
3. Fertility and birth
For individuals and couples pursuing fertility treatments and pregnancy, CooperSurgical offers one of the most extensive collections of patient-facing solutions. Whether you’re exploring assisted reproduction, using donor gametes (eggs, sperm, or embryos), undergoing genetic testing, or preserving your options for the future, CooperSurgical fertility and birth offerings should provide support throughout your journey.
The table below showcases key products and services tailored to patients navigating fertility:
Category | Product/service | What it offers |
Donor options | One of the largest and most diverse catalogs of sperm donors in the U.S. | |
Nationwide database with frozen donor eggs from rigorously screened donors for use in IVF cycles | ||
Genetic testing | ER-Completesm | 3-in-1 endometrial genetic test for identifying the best timing for embryo transfer |
PGT-Completesm | 4-in-1 genetic test for assessing embryo health and improving IVF success | |
Cryopreservation | Secure and specialized handling for transporting frozen eggs, sperm, and embryos | |
Embryo Options™ | A platform for managing, storing, and making decisions about your frozen embryos | |
Sage™ Vitrification Kit | Freezing technology to preserve eggs and embryos for future use | |
Stem cell banking | The No. 1 OB-GYN-recommended stem cell bank |
Source: PNW Production
One important area notably underserved by CooperSurgical in family care is preconception genetic testing and carrier screening. These types of testing are critical because they provide prospective parents with early insights into inherited genetic risks, helping them make informed decisions well before pregnancy.
For individuals and couples seeking the most comprehensive genetic information, Nucleus offers a clinical-grade, physician-ordered DNA testing option with 99.9% accuracy. The company’s technology analyzes nearly 100% of your DNA and combines it with lifestyle factors to provide personalized, actionable health information and the hereditary carriers you may pass on to your kids. Order your Nucleus Family kit today to take proactive steps toward a healthier future for you and your family.
CooperSurgical reviews: How reliable are the company’s IVF solutions?
Recently, two CooperSurgical products used in the IVF journey have become the center of controversy. These products are employed at different critical stages of the process. One supports the development and growth of embryos in the lab, while the other plays a key role in the genetic testing of those embryos.
To better understand their roles in a broader context, here’s a simplified IVF timeline with genetic testing:
Ovarian stimulation
Egg retrieval and fertilization
Embryo culture and development
Embryo selection
Embryo transfer
The two controversial CooperSurgical products are involved in Steps 3 and 4 — CooperSurgical Global® Medium and CooperSurgical PGT-A test. Let’s take a closer look at each product, exploring their intended roles, reported issues, and what these mean for patients navigating the IVF process.
CooperSurgical Global® Medium
One of the foundational steps during an IVF cycle is culturing embryos outside the body in a laboratory setting. This process typically lasts five to six days and continues until the embryos reach the blastocyst stage, when they are the most viable for transfer.
To support this delicate phase, CooperSurgical developed Global® Medium, a solution designed for uninterrupted embryo development from Day 1 through Day 5. According to the company, the medium contains energy substrates and essential amino acids necessary to nourish embryos, and its performance has been supported by over 15 years of use and hundreds of independent publications.
Despite its long-standing presence in fertility labs, recent lawsuits allege that certain batches of this product failed to perform as expected — with devastating consequences. In late 2023, the company issued a recall of three lots of this embryo culture medium following complaints from fertility clinics that embryos stopped developing shortly after being placed in the product.
Several couples have since filed lawsuits against the company, claiming that the recalled culture media were defective and directly led to the loss of viable embryos. These lawsuits claim negligence, failure to warn, and defective design or manufacturing.
Some couples reportedly lost more than a dozen embryos they had hoped would lead to children. Given how physically, emotionally, and financially demanding IVF can be, these alleged losses have left many patients deeply shaken.
If you’re considering IVF and your clinic uses CooperSurgical products, it’s not unreasonable to ask detailed questions, such as:
What products are being used?
How does the clinic verify the safety of those products?
What contingency plans are in place if something goes wrong?
As the situation unfolds, patients and clinics should proceed with heightened caution when using CooperSurgical equipment.
CooperSurgical PGT-A test
Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) is a screening tool used during IVF to assess the chromosomal health of embryos before implantation. The goal is to identify embryos with the correct number of chromosomes (23 pairs) to increase the chances of a successful implantation, healthy pregnancy, and live birth.
According to CooperSurgical, the company’s PGT-A tests are highly accurate and can provide more confidence in selecting viable embryos. The table below breaks down core parts of CooperSurgical’s technology that contribute to this accuracy, according to the company.
Technology | How it works | What it achieves |
AI-powered analysis (PGTai®) | Uses AI based on clinical outcomes to assess embryo viability | Reduces subjectivity in embryo assessment |
Dual genomic analysis | Combines Copy Number Variation (CNV) and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) methods | Detects chromosome abnormalities with greater precision |
Primary template-directed amplification (PTA) | Enhances the quality of embryo biopsy samples | Improves the accuracy of genetic material for more reliable testing |
In 2024, some of these claims would come under scrutiny as a class action lawsuit was filed against CooperSurgical, alleging that the company’s PGT-A tests didn’t perform as promised. At the core of the legal battle is the concern that hopeful patients weren’t given full, transparent information about the risks and limits of the technology — a serious issue in a field where time, money, and emotional energy are already stretched thin.
Although this controversy raises serious questions about how this technology is marketed and used, it’s important to recognize that PGT-A remains a valuable tool in the IVF process. When used appropriately and with a full understanding of its limitations, genetic testing can provide useful insights that help guide clinical decisions.
Until more clarity about the accuracy of PGT-A emerges through scientific consensus or legal resolution, IVF patients should:
Understand that no test can guarantee success — only provide additional information to guide treatment decisions
Ask critical questions about the risks, benefits, and evidence behind any genetic test
Inquire about complementary testing options for a more comprehensive assessment of embryo health, including PGT-M, PGT-SR, and PGT-P
Among complementary testing options, PGT-P often gets overlooked but can provide valuable insights into embryos’ long-term health outcomes for complex, multifactorial conditions like Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and schizophrenia — conditions other tests don’t screen for. If you have a family history of chronic inherited conditions, ask your clinic about PGT-P testing. You can also explore PGT testing options online at LifeView.
Bonus read: Check out these articles to learn more about the ins and outs of PGT-A:
Go beyond standard genetic testing with Nucleus
Nucleus offers a one-of-its-kind genetic optimization software that uses the PGT-P data already collected during embryo biopsy to help you rank embryos for long-term health risks.
With Nucleus Embryo, you can analyze and compare up to 20 embryos in a single dashboard, with the goal of choosing the most suitable one to transfer during your IVF cycle. You’ll be able to base this choice on various genetic insights, including:
Health conditions (e.g., cancer risk, depression, and ADHD)
Hereditary disorders (multiple hereditary diseases, including cystic fibrosis)
Well-being and personality indicators (e.g., sleep patterns and migraine)
This deeper level of analysis offers a complete genetic profile of each embryo — far beyond viability and rare disease screening offered by most clinics. Most importantly, Nucleus prioritizes transparency and scientific rigor, delivering only actionable information grounded in peer-reviewed research and clinical-grade genetic data.
Nucleus offers a responsible way to provide greater clarity to a deeply personal decision-making process. Rather than predicting outcomes, it empowers parents with actionable insights to make informed, thoughtful choices.
How to get started with Nucleus Embryo
If you’re undergoing IVF or plan to do so, Nucleus Embryo will fit seamlessly into your journey. Here’s how to get started:
Ask your clinic for PGT-P testing with LifeView by Genomic Prediction
Sign up for Nucleus Embryo during or after you complete your IVF cycle
Request your embryos’ PGT-P DNA data from your clinic
Upload the data to Nucleus Embryo and analyze the embryo analysis report
These reports will help you navigate your IVF journey with greater certainty, knowing you’re giving your future family the best possible start.
You May Also Like…
Check out these articles if you’re interested in other companies making waves in the genetic testing and reproductive health space:
Featured image source: RDNE Stock project
