How does the egg donation process work?

IVF with donor eggs is often the last chance to get pregnant for women who cannot become mothers due to the lack of their own eggs or their unsatisfactory quality.

IVF programs using donor eggs are highly effective. Thanks to the use of high-quality oocytes, embryos with high implantation potential are obtained, which significantly increases the chances for success of artificial insemination.

VittoriaVita successfully applies IVF protocols with donor eggs and has created an extensive donor base, which is regularly updated.

What’s the meaning of egg donation? 

Egg donation is a method of assisted reproductive technology, one of the most effective treatments for infertility, which includes the use of eggs from an outside donor woman in IVF protocols.

Oocyte donation is used in cases where it is impossible to obtain high-quality patient eggs or cannot be used for medical reasons.

Indications

The most common reason for using donor oocytes is the depletion of the patient’s ovarian reserve. Each woman is born with a certain amount (reserve) of eggs, which gradually decreases throughout life. After 35 years, the number of germ cells is rapidly declining, which often causes problems on the way to pregnancy.

The use of donor eggs is indicated in the following cases:

• lack of own eggs due to menopause;
• premature ovarian failure;
• the absence of uterine appendages after surgical interventions;
• abnormalities in the development of the ovaries;
• the presence of genes with mutations in women with hereditary diseases;
• after chemotherapy and radiation therapy;
• previous unsuccessful attempts at artificial insemination: insufficient reaction of the ovaries to stimulation, obtaining embryos of poor quality.

Who is an egg donor, what are the requirements to become one?

A donor is a woman who agrees to donate her eggs to another woman on a voluntary basis.

The choice of an oocyte donor is a responsible process, because the health and appearance of the child depends on the quality of the eggs.

VittoriaVita has created an egg donor database containing detailed information about donors:

• General information (weight, height, body type)
• Health medical information,
• Marital status, religion, nationality
• Hobbies
• Health information for children and parents.

All donors are healthy women with an attractive appearance, leading a healthy lifestyle, not having bad habits and contraindications to donations.Each donor undergoes a detailed diagnosis, the database is constantly updated.

Since IVF requires only high-quality eggs, strict requirements are imposed on donors:

• Age from 18 to 30 years.
• Consent to take hormonal drugs on schedule.
• The presence of a healthy child.
• Lack of bad habits, mental illness.
• Lack of ovarian stimulation in the last 4 months.

Each egg donor undergoes a detailed medical examination, during which:

• Genetic risks are excluded.
• Hormonal background is being studied.
• Inflammatory processes in the body are excluded.

VittoriaVita carefully selects donors, taking into account all the wishes of the couple: hair color, eyes, height, blood type, etc.

The donor base is constantly expanding, all candidates undergo detailed medical and genetic diagnostics.

Procedure

Before the egg collection procedure, a detailed examination of the donor and patient is mandatory. After passing all the tests, the cycles in women are synchronized using hormonal drugs.

The next step is the development of an individual ovarian stimulation protocol for the donor.The fact is that, in one cycle, only one egg matures in a woman’s body.

Stimulation of the ovaries allows you to get several eggs at once in one cycle, which at times increases the chances of IVF success.

All subsequent steps will be the same as with traditional IVF, with the only difference that all the manipulations will be carried out with the donor, and not with the patient:

1. Oocyte extraction, selection of the highest quality.
2. In vitro fertilization in a laboratory.
3. Embryo cultivation.
4. Selection and transfer of the highest quality fetuses to the uterus of the future mother.
5. Supportive hormone therapy.
6. Pregnancy test.

Are complications possible after the procedure? Of course, risks always exist when it comes to taking hormonal drugs and medical manipulations.

Before the start of the procedure and hormone therapy, women undergo a detailed diagnosis, all contraindications are excluded. The type, dosage and schedule of taking hormonal drugs is individually selected, so the risk of developing any complications is minimized.

Unused eggs can be frozen for future use in IVF programs.

All information about donor programs is confidential. The couple signs an agreement that they will not look for donor and establish a relationship with her. Spouses are provided with only general information about the donor from the database, which is enough to select a donor.

For her part, the donor has no right to demand information about the results of donor programs, and also does not have any rights to the child and can not dispute this fact in court. 

How much does an egg donation service cost? The cost of an egg donor service is already included in the total price of the IVF program.

VittoriaVita uses two IVF protocols with egg donation:

1. “Result” – IVF + donor egg + partner’s sperm + PGD + gender determination (unlimited number of attempts) – 11 000 Euro.
2. “Chance” – IVF + donor egg + partner sperm + PGD + gender determination – 6 000 Euro.

VittoriaVita is a leading agency for assisted reproductive technologies in Ukraine with an office in the center of Kiev, which operates under Ukrainian law.