Fertility problems? Consider egg donation

Thousands of women struggle with infertility every day. In cases where traditional pregnancy with your own eggs is not possible, egg donation is recommended.

Getting pregnant using donated eggs is becoming more and more popular; in fact, it has become the most trusted medical solution for couples that have been trying to conceive a baby for many years with no result.

The procedure of donating eggs has a higher success rate as compared to IVF treatment. The success rate is approximately 75%, which is the result of high-quality egg selection.

                                 

The key participants involved in egg donation therapy include the egg donor that offers the eggs, the egg recipient that receives the best embryos, and the father that provides the sperm.

In many cases, an egg donor may be chosen based on individual characteristics, such as eye, hair, or skin color. In that way, the characteristics of the donor match with the characteristics of the recipient.

The egg donation process consists of four phases.

1.  In the first phase, ovarian hyperstimulation, donors receive a series of hormonal drugs to produce multiple mature eggs.
2. During phase two, egg retrieval, mature eggs are removed from the donor through a surgical procedure.
3. The next step is about fertilizing the donated eggs with the sperm of the future father. 
4. At the final phase, the resulting embryos are transferred to the receiving woman after a period of five days.

Egg Donation

To prepare the womb of the recipient to receive the embryos, the future mother is put on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), so the cycles of both the recipient and the egg donor are synchronized.

Throughout the donation procedure, egg donors spend approximately 60 hours in screening, testing, and medical appointments. Women that donate eggs should be between 21 and 30 years old, healthy, and have proven ovarian reserves.

Although egg donation is a wonderful solution for couples wishing to have a child, the legal framework is not so friendly around the world. In a number of European countries, including, Germany and Italy, donating eggs is not legal. That’s why many couples seek help abroad in countries where the procedure is allowed. One of these countries is Cyprus, where couples can find IVF clinics offering high-quality services that result in high pregnancy rates. Moreover, IVF treatment expenses in Cyprus are lower than in the UK. For that reason, many couples from the UK choose to travel abroad to visit an IVF clinic and receive premium quality services for a lower cost.

Interested? Take the next step… dunyaivf.co.uk/egg-donation

What is IVF treatment?

As long as humanity has existed, fertility has been a major issue for the medical field. Nowadays, fertility problems affect more than 20% of the population. It is only since the late 1970s that a real chance for conception has arrived, thanks to the development of IVF treatment.

Recommended for..

IVF treatment is in short the in-vitro fertilization of woman's eggs in a laboratory environment.
In-Vitro-Fertilization treatment is recommended to couples that have unprotected sex regularly for longer than a year and have failed to get pregnant. 

For such couples, several tests are performed to assess their suitability for IVF treatment and especially which of its sub-categories is appropriate for them. The usual examination for women includes an ultrasound check of the ovarian reserves and a test of specific hormones’ levels. 

For men, a spermiogram is conducted to check the sperm count, as well as sperm activity and morphology.Couples that cannot conceive naturally can proceed to the IVF treatment to get pregnant (provided that both partners meet a minimum of certain fertility criteria).

The process..

The treatment begins with the stimulation of the ovaries, in order for them to produce as many eggs as possible. The stimulation is done with hormone injections and this phase usually lasts from 10 to 14 days. At the end of this period, the mature eggs are collected with a short procedure called Oocyte Pick-Up (OPU). On the same day of the OPU, the sperm is used to fertilize the freshly retrieved eggs (microinjection).

The fertilized eggs are placed in incubators that simulate the human body. These fertilized eggs are then observed for three to five days for their progress: some will develop into viable embryos. The IVF treatment ends and the viable embryos are transferred to the patient’s uterus and from that point on, pregnancy develops naturally.

There are several variations of IVF treatment for cases where fertility problems of one partner (or both) do not allow pregnancy with their own eggs or sperm. In such cases, the treatment is performed using donors’ eggs or sperm (or both). 

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Why people choose to proceed with egg donation?

  Women whose own eggs do not result in a viable pregnancy choose to proceed with egg donation. Some of the reasons why a woman’s own eggs cannot be used and lot more information about this procedure explained here.

1. Premature ovarian failure is a leading cause where women stop producing eggs at an early age. There are cases where women go into early menopause in their early 20s. Women suffering from premature ovarian failure can no longer produce healthy eggs that can lead to pregnancy.
2. Some women are born without ovaries, in which case the only possibility of having a baby is through egg donation.
3. Women who go through chemotherapy or radiotherapy whose ovaries may have been damaged by the treatment may also need this procedure
4. Women who produce eggs but have genetic diseases could also choose egg donation to ensure healthy children.
5. Older women with diminished ovarian reserves or older women who are going through menopause could also become pregnant with egg donation.

Egg Donors

Use of donated eggs results in a highly enhanced pregnancy rates in the region of 75% - 80%. This is due to the egg donors’ proven fertility. Egg donors go through strict screening to ensure that the egg donation will be successful. Most egg donors are below the age of 30 with proven ovarian reserves. They are also screened for genetic diseases and a psychological examination is performed.

The donated eggs can either be provided by an egg donor or by the receiver couple’s friends or family. Depending on the regulation of the country, it can be totally illegal (e.g. Italy, Germany) or the egg donors could be known or anonymous. In anonymous egg donation, the clinic matches the most suitable donor for the couple based on physical characteristics.

Egg donation is performed in a very similar way to normal IVF procedure except that the egg of a donor is used for fertilization. The fertilized egg (embryo) is then transferred to the female who otherwise could not use her own eggs. The pregnancy then develops normally. This greatly enhances the probability of a successful pregnancy.

In addition to traditional couples, recently gay couples have begun to use this procedure and surrogacy to become parents. However, there are only very few countries in the world where allow this in their regulations.

With the huge improvement of success rates, egg donation has really become a great hope for couples wishing to have babies where the woman could otherwise not conceive.