Two babies

Referral & Treatments

Gamete and Embryo Donation

Donating eggs

You may have heard about becoming an egg donor via the newspaper or television, or via a friend or relative who is undergoing IVF or needs donated eggs. The first step is to go and see your GP and ask him to refer you to us or contact the units and ask for an appointment to see the egg donation co-ordinator.

You will be seen in the Reproductive Medicine Clinic, preferably together with your partner. The doctor will discuss your motivation, the social, medical and legal aspects of egg donation, and explain the techniques involved and the potential side effects and risks. Counselling services by a non-medical professional counsellor are offered by the clinic and available to you at any time during reflection or treatment. You will be given some further literature to read at home and some time for reflection.

Egg donors are screened in a similar way to sperm donors.

This includes:

What does donating eggs itself involve?

Egg donation consists of undergoing an IVF cycle up to the point of egg retrieval. This involves a number of clinic attendances (5 to 7), taking medicines to control and then stimulate the ovaries, blood tests and ultrasound scans to monitor the egg development and a small operation to collect the eggs.

All the drugs that are required for your egg donation cycle will be provided by the clinic and given to you at the commencement of the cycle.

What happens to the eggs you have donated?

Currently in our unit at the Clarendon Wing, all donated eggs go to help infertile women and none are used for research. Once you have donated eggs, they will be inseminated with the sperm of the egg recipient's partner. If the eggs fertilise and develop into suitable embryos, they will be transferred to the womb of the recipient. No recipients older than 42 are accepted for anonymous egg donation in our unit.

Finances

Egg donation is voluntary and non-commercial, therefore no payments are involved between donor and recipient. The cost of the IVF cycle and necessary drugs are paid for by the egg recipient. Your travel expenses and childcare fees will be refunded to a maximum of £300.

What if I change my mind?

You are free to withdraw from the egg donation programme at any time before the embryo transfer without any threat of financial penalty or fear of recrimination.

The government has decided to introduce regulations in Parliament to remove anonymity from sperm, egg and embryo donors who donate from 1 April 2005. This means that people conceived as a result of such donations will have access to identifying information about the donor at age 18.

Donating embryos

For the transfer of frozen embryos to be successful the embryos must be put back into the womb when the lining of the womb (endometrium) is ready to receive embryos. There are two ways of achieving this, either in a natural cycle or during an artificial cycle. Natural cycle embryo replacement is relatively simple, and requires monitoring of the development of the endometrium by ultrasound scans combined with ovulation prediction kits (which test the hormones released into your urine), which tell us when you are about to ovulate. Using a combination of these tests we can work out when the endometrium is ready to receive the embryos.

The alternative is to use an artificial cycle in which the natural hormones are suppressed with the injection of Prostap or Zoladex, administered on day 21 of your cycle. This injection works for a month and is a longer acting form of the nasal spray or daily injections that you would have received for your IVF treatment. Once your hormones are suppressed we ask you to commence oestrogen tablets to thicken the endometrium. When the endometrium is of an appropriate depth you are then given progesterone support to take the endometrium receptive to the embryos.

The success rates of both techniques are similar although we prefer of use the artificial cycle for logistic reasons.

Embryo donors

It is possible to donate your spare frozen embryos to another infertile couple to help then achieve a pregnancy. These are usually couples who need both donor eggs and donor sperm.

If you choose to donate your embryos we will need to see you both in the clinic to;

We will make you an appointment to see the unit counsellor to discuss all the implications of this decision.

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