Donor Egg IVF Procedure

Organ donation helps save lives. Egg donation helps to birth life

Parenthood is one of the best phases of a couple’s life. But, some couples are not able to become parent due to certain medical reasons. In such cases, Donor egg IVF is a boon and gives them hope to complete their family. In egg donation, a fertile woman legally donates her eggs to a recipient woman who is unable to get pregnant by her own eggs. Conceiving by donor eggs is becoming more common, especially among women above the age of 40. In fact, some women become mothers after age of 60. Egg donation is a safe, efficient, legal and ethically acceptable method of highly developed reproductive technology.

Who needs Donor egg:

  • Early menopause
  • Extremely poor egg quality
  • History of genetic disease
  • Ovaries do not respond to stimulation (Ovaries are not able to produce egg even after medication)
  • Hormonal imbalance (Imbalance of FSH, LH and prolactin etc)
  • Multiple miscarriages
  • Women who have previously failed multiple IVF attempts
  • Cancer patient whose ovaries are affected due to chemotherapy /radiotherapy and could leads to infertility

Steps of egg donation and giving birth to a healthy baby:

  1. Find a donor– A couple who is willing to use donor eggs for IVF should contact IVF clinic for finding an egg donor. Egg donor should be anonymous.
  2. Screening the egg donor– The Indian Council of Medical Research has instituted the following guidelines for an egg donor selection:
  1. Suppression and Ovarian Stimulation of Egg Donor– IVF specialist prescribes some medication to egg donor as well as to the recipient to synchronize their cycles with each other.During the ovarian stimulation phase,IVF specialist administers gonadotropin daily to stimulate donor ovaries.
  2. Prepare recipient uterus for pregnancy– Meanwhile, IVF specialist prescribes estrogen and progesterone to prepare recipient uterus for pregnancy.
  3. Egg retrieval from egg donor – Once the donor’s eggs are mature, the IVF specialist extracts eggs from ovaries by needle aspiration (if patient want then some eggs freezed for future use).
  4. Fertilization & transfer of the embryo in recipient womb – The fresh retrieved eggs are fertilized with recipient partner sperm in laboratory. Fertilized eggs become embryo after 2 to 5 days, and then transferred into recipient’s uterus for implantation.

Legal and ethical aspects of egg donation–

  • Any children born from the donated eggs are the legitimate children of the prospective parents.
  • Egg donor would be entitled to a monetary compensation from the couple.
  • The donor relinquishes all her rights over the ownership of the children so born through the procedure.
  • Egg donor cannot act as a surrogate mother for the couple to whom the egg is being donated.

Conceiving by donor egg technique enjoys the highest success rate of all fertility procedures. The success rate of pregnancy by using donor eggs generally depends upon age of egg donor (best quality eggs produced in young women), sperm, health of the recipient women and retrieval process. Therefore, it is important to consult only qualified IVF specialist for egg donation.