Egg Donation
The first pregnancy achieved with egg donation was reported in 1984. Since that time, egg donation has become an increasingly common and effective method to conceive a child.
Whom is IVF suitable for with egg donation?
Donor egg IVF is generally with significantly diminished egg quantity and quality (poor ovarian reserve). This includes women with:
- Premature ovarian failure (early menopause)
- Very poor egg quality
- Poor response to ovarian stimulation
- Very low antral follicle counts on ultrasound
- Advanced female age, such as over age 40
Donor egg IVF is recommended to the women who are known to be affected or be the carrier of a genetic disease in order to avoid the risk of passing on genetic disorders to her child.
Our donors
Altravita IVF clinic has a well-developed egg donation program corresponding to the highest standards and criteria set by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). We only accept egg cells from young (18-32), good-looking, healthy donors.
We have a large database of active egg donors who underwent a thorough medical and psychological screening. Besides providing a detailed medical history about herself and close blood relatives, the donor undergoes the following examinations:
- general medical examination (including blood tests, ultrasound scan)
- ovarian reserve testing
- infectious disease screening for a variety of infections
- genetic screening and karyotyping
- drug test
- medical examination by gynecologist, geneticist and psychiatrist.
Fresh and frozen egg donation programs
Both programs are offered at Altravita.
Fresh egg donation IVF cycles is the way the majority of egg donation is done around the world:
- The donors are chosen by a recipient couple and stimulated to produce multiple eggs.
- The eggs are retrieved and fertilized by patient’s partner sperm (or donor sperm) with the resulting fresh embryos transferred to the patient.
- Remaining embryos would be frozen for future frozen embryo transfer procedures (if needed).
All the eggs from the donor are available to you for fertilization. This cycle maximizes the pregnancy rates and typically results in additional embryos for cryopreservation.
Egg freezing has improved significantly over the past several years due to fine-tuning of freezing and thawing protocols. Thawed egg survival and viability is much better than it was previously. A new technology of ultrafast freezing (vitrification) of oocytes was invented. The embryologists at our clinic were early leaders in the field of egg and embryo vitrification. Altravita has a record of successful IVF programs with frozen donor eggs.
Frozen egg donation does not require synchronization of the cycle between the donor and the patient. Treatment cycles are quicker and treatment cost is lower compared to fresh egg donation.
Legal aspects of egg donation program
According to the legislation of the Russian Federation a woman, who gave birth to a child, is considered the mother (except for surrogacy cases). The donor has no legal relations to the child conceived from her egg.
The law does not set the age limit for this treatment program.
IVF with egg donation treatment steps
- Consultation with reproductive endocrinologist; selection of the individual stimulation protocol: preparing the uterine lining for embryo transfer and synchronization of the donor and patient cycles in case of fresh egg donation.
- Monitoring of the hormonal stimulation under ultrasound.
- Collection of donor eggs under general anesthesia/thawing of vitrified donor eggs.
- Sperm collection, analysis and preparation. Semen is prepared for fertilization by removing inactive cells and seminal fluid by so-called sperm washing.
- Fertilization using ICSI or IMSI methods.
- Cultivation of embryos. The produced embryos are being cultivated in special incubators for 5-6 days. Their development is closely monitored by experienced embryologists. If necessary, PGS or PGD can be performed to select the embryos free from genetic diseases.
- Embryo transfer is a painless transfer of the best embryo into the woman’s uterus. Spare embryos will be cryopreserved by vitrification method.
