IVF with Donor Eggs

IVF with donor eggs offers women a chance to get pregnant even after they’ve been diagnosed with infertility. Many women are able to get pregnant and deliver healthy babies after getting IVF done with donor eggs. Prior to the development of IVF and the establishment of the IVF clinics and fertility centres, there were no options were available for women with premature ovarian failure, diminished ovarian reserve or genetically transmittable diseases. This article will highlight in steps how the whole process of egg donation works, right from the screening of the donor to the embryo transfer to the recipient.

Step 1: Before anything else, egg donors must apply to an egg donation program. They go through screening and two rounds of interview there. It is a selective procedure and only 1 to 3 out of a hundred applicants are selected.

Step 2: The egg donor will self-administer daily injections of a medication (Lupron) to suppress her natural cycle, to synchronize with the recipient’s cycles. In the ovarian stimulation phase, the egg donor uses daily injections of gonadotropin to stimulate her ovaries. This leads to maturation of more than one egg, which is not possible naturally. During this phase, the egg donors are monitored closely through blood tests and ultrasound.

Step 3: On the side of the recipient, an endometrium of at least 7mm, is crucial for the success of the donor egg cycle. This provides a favourable uterine environment. While the donor develops eggs for retrieval, the recipient takes oestrogen and progesterone to prepare her endometrial lining for implantation.

Step 4: Ultrasound imaging shows when the donor’s eggs have sufficiently developed. The donor will then be instructed to trigger an ovulation with the help of a Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) injection. The eggs are retrieved two days later at the clinic in a procedure called egg retrieval. The donor is sedated and the eggs are aspired, guided by ultrasound, through a needle transvaginally.

Step 5: The retrieved eggs are then fertilized with the recipient’s partner’s sperm, or a male donor’s sperm. The resulting embryos are incubated and graded. Embryos are transferred into the recipient’s uterus on day 3, and sometimes (rarely) on day 5.

Step 6: Donors have no problem returning to normal life within a day or two of egg retrieval. Recipients have a pregnancy test two weeks after an embryo transfer. After two rising HCG tests and an ultrasound demonstrating a pregnancy, the recipients is referred to an obstetrician.

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