Donor egg IVF

So you have been told by your physician that the quality of your eggs is very poor. You may be in your 40s, experienced menopause, your day 3 FSH level may be elevated or you may have had several failed IVF   cycles in which the quality of the embryos was poor. Sometimes donor egg IVF is utilized to avoid transmitting a genetic disease to the children.

What are your options?

Surrogacy

Some couples consider surrogacy in which the husband's sperm is utilized to inseminate another woman who will conceive, carry the pregnancy and then give up the baby to the infertile couple. This is done through a complicated and expensive legal contract which may be challenged in court.

Adoption 

The process of adopting a child is not easy and may take months or even years to accomplish. Several types of adoptions are available including private or independent adoption, public or private adoption agencies, and international adoptions. If you are considering adoption, you should contact one the many agencies and lawyers who specialize in adoptions.

Donor egg IVF

Couples can choose to go through donor egg IVF in which eggs, provided by a donor, are fertilized with the husband's sperm and the resulting embryos are implanted in the wife's womb. The donor may be either anonymous or known to the recipient. Sometimes eggs from a patient undergoing IVF for infertility may be shared with another infertile couple - a process referred to as shared oocytes donation.

How is the egg donor selected?

You may select an egg donor from our clinic's available donor list or you may choose to use an independent organization to help you with your search for a donor. Using a known donor has the advantage of personally knowing the individual who will be providing the eggs to be inseminated by your husband's sperm. This may alleviate some of the anxieties and concerns about the origin of the eggs but also requires that you have strong interpersonal relationship between you and the donor.

How much does it cost to have an egg donor?

• There is no fee for providing you a donor from our donor list. The donor fee is paid by the recipient to a lawyer who prepares the legal contract. The lawyer then pays the donor $5000 -$6000 as compensation for her time out of work.
• Donor egg agencies charge a fee for their services in addition to the donor’s compensation.

How long will it be before I can begin treatment?

• At BocaFertility you can expect to undergo donor egg IVF within a reasonable period of time, usually between two to three months after your initial consultation.
• The donor is asked to complete a detailed questionnaire about her personal, medical, obstetrical, surgical and genetic history.
• The donor is also required to have a thorough physical examination, psychological evaluation and counseling, genetic blood tests such as cystic fibrosis and infectious disease screening.

Before donor egg IVF treatment

Prior to beginning treatment your doctor will order a hysterosalpingogram   (HSG) and a Saline Infusion Sonography  (SIS) to see if there is any uterine or tubal abnormality which may interfere with embryo transfer and implantation. A mock trial transfer will be performed at the same time to make sure that the embryo transfer will proceed smoothly and to measure the optimal uterine location for transferring the embryos.

The IVF cycle

• The donor is given daily hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs.
• During this time you will be given transdermal estrogen to prepare your own uterus (the recipient uterus) to accept the embryos. 
• The lining of your uterus (yellow line, below) is checked to make sure it is thick enough for the embryo to implant. The thickness of lining of your uterus (endometrial thickness) should be over 8mm and have a “triple line” appearance on the ultrasound (the two orange lines with the white line in the middle). 

• The donor is carefully monitored with ultrasounds and blood tests until her eggs are ready for ovulation.
• The donor is given HCG injection to trigger ovulation and her eggs will be retrieved about 35 hours later.
• Once the donor receives her HCG to trigger ovulation, you will be given Progesterone injections to prepare your uterine lining for embryo implantation.
• During egg retrieval, multiple eggs (oocytes) are removed from the donor’s ovaries and taken to the embryo laboratory where they will be fertilized with your husband’s sperm. The embryos are checked daily and you will be given a daily update from our IVF nurses.
• The embryos will most likely be transferred 5 days after fertilization at the blastocyst stage.

How many embryos will be transferred?

At BocaFertility we will transfer a maximum of 2 good quality embryos; we also offer a single embryo transfer (SET) in selected patients to minimize the risk of twin gestation.

How successful is donor egg IVF?

BocaFertility has a successful donor egg IVF program achieving a pregnancy rate of about 80% and delivery rate of about 65%.