Donation

Donor egg treatment for IVF is where a woman uses another woman’s eggs (the donor) rather than her own.

Why choose this path?

Women who cannot use their own eggs for conception, but can still carry a child in their uterus, may want to use a donor egg. It may be that she has too few eggs (ovarian reserve), poor quality eggs, ovaries that do not work well or there could be genetic reasons. Same-sex couples may want to use this path, too.

Once you have decided that egg donation is suitable for you, and your doctor agrees, an egg donor must be found. Your clinic will offer to put you on a waiting list for an egg donor and advise you on the waiting time.

Egg donors can be anonymous altruistic donors or someone known to you such as a close friend. You may also consider ‘egg sharing’. This is when another woman receiving treatment donates some of her eggs for you to use.

How IVF works with donor eggs

An egg donor is chosen and screened to ensure a clean bill of health. The two women synchronise their menstrual cycles with contraceptive pills. Unless donor sperm is used, the intended father’s sperm is checked to make sure it is healthy. On the day that the eggs are collected, a sperm sample is mixed with the donor eggs in the lab to fertilise them, or they are fertilised by ICSI and transferred to the womb

The embryos are transferred to the intended mother’s womb as in conventional IVF or may be frozen after they have been fertilized (this avoids the need to synchronise menstrual cycles)