If you are older, especially if you’re over 42, and have not succeeded with other therapies, or if you have premature ovarian failure (POF), also known as early menopause, your treatment options are limited. Egg donation, which involves the use of eggs donated by another woman who is typically in her 20s or early 30s, is highly successful. The high success rate with egg donation confirms that egg quality associated with age is the primary barrier to pregnancy in older women.
What are your chances of conceiving after 40?
If you are over 40, your chance of successful pregnancy is much higher in IVF cycles using donor eggs, but many couples or single women in their early 40s will choose to accept the lower chance of becoming pregnant and use their own eggs.
By age 43, the chance of becoming pregnant through IVF is less than 5%, and by age 45, use of donor eggs is the only reasonable alternative.
In an egg donation cycle, the woman receiving the donated eggs is referred to as the "recipient". The egg donor receives fertility medications to stimulate the production of multiple eggs in her ovaries.
At the same time, the egg recipient is given hormone therapy to prepare her uterus to receive the fertilized eggs (embryos). After the eggs are obtained from the donor; they are fertilized in the laboratory with sperm from the recipient’s partner. Several days after fertilization, the embryos are transferred to the recipient’s uterus. Any embryos that are not transferred may be frozen (cryopreserved) for a future cycle.
Donor-egg IVF offers a woman an opportunity to experience pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. The child, however, will not be genetically related to her but will be genetically related to the father and the egg donor. Many programs recommend counseling so that all parties in a donor-egg agreement understand the ethical, legal, psychological, and social issues involved.
Because success depends heavily upon the quality of eggs that are donated, women in their 20s with proven fertility are ideal donors.
We ensure that the best quality of eggs are used for egg donation. Therefore selecting a robust Egg Donor with Good Ovarian reserve, preferably in the younger side of 20’s is what we aim for.
We strictly adhere to the Egg Donor selection criteria laid out by Indian Council for Medical Research. The Egg donor goes through various levels of screening before she is selected as an Egg Donor.
1. The Egg donors should be in the age group of 21 to 35 years. If her other basic criteria’s like qualifications, background, looks are matching the requirements she is okayed for the next level of screening, else rejected.
2. The first screening test in the donor selection process is to see her Antral follicle count (AFC). This is done by a transvaginal ultrasound scan and the follicles are counted. A good AFC count is indicative of good ovarian reserve and a good response to stimulation. If the Count is normal the next level of screening is done.
3. The next step is to counsel the donor regarding the egg donation process. They are made to understand about the consents that they have to sign and that the risks or complications of this process. Psychological counseling is crucial and only when the donor understand and consents that we move to the next level of testing.
4. AMH is a significant screening test. AMH levels help predict the ovarian reserve and tells us if we will have a good number of eggs on stimulation. Egg donors with AMH value of.... or above are screened.
5. The donor undergoes a series of blood tests that screen for any infectious diseases, HIV, Syphilis or Thalassemia. The donor’s medical history is taken and we also look for any family history of disorders. Based on request from couples (and if they are willing to meet the costs), a chromosomal analysis or Karyotyping can also be done to screen for any chromosomal aberrations.
6. If the results of these test are normal, the donor is ready to undergo Ovarian Stimulation.
Donor Confidentiality
The donor’s identity needs to be kept confidential by Indian law. No picture or identification details can be provided.
The recipients will be given a donor profile that gives the following information:
- Age, weight, height, complexion, eye color, ethnicity, religion, qualifications.
- The results of the screening tests can also be shared.
We often get request from couples to provide donors from their ethnic / religious background. We accept such requests and try to recruit donor accordingly. We always try to match the donor as closely as possible to the couple’s ethnicity and looks and religious preferences.
Matching donors with certain features like extremely fair complexion, vegetarian, eye color cannot be always guaranteed and is expensive. Donors with fair complexion and eye colors, higher educational qualifications, charge anything from 50,000/- to 1 lac or more for their egg donation services.
Egg Donors with Non-Indian Ethnicity
For International Patients who would like to undergo IVF treatments at Care IVF, we will be able to source Egg donors of foreign origin and ethnicity if they are willing to meet the additional costs. We are tied up with a number of International Egg donation agencies that provide specialized Egg Donor matching services like matching ethnicity, Complexion, iris color. These agencies charge anything form 4-6 lakhs for their specialized Egg donor matching services. The brighter side is that their charges usually covers the expenses of donor screening tests, initial donor stimulation (medicines), Travel Fare and accommodation costs. The agencies look into Donor stimulation, all travel and accommodation arrangements of the donor and her chaperone. The Donor and her chaperone arrive at the clinic on the day of Pick up for the egg retrieval procedure.
Egg Donation Treatment Process
The first step is to decide the characteristics you prefer in an egg donor. The egg donor could be a family member, friend, or someone anonymous. Usually Egg donors are screened by egg donation agencies. At Care IVF has its own independent Oocyte bank by name of KSOB, which screens egg donors for the Couples opting for Egg donation cycles.
Egg donation process begins with the couples making the necessary payments for the process and giving us their egg donor preferences. We then screen the donors that best match the couple’s requirement. We go ahead with the screening tests. If the results are normal the donor is selected.
Once the egg donor is selected, the treatment can be planned.
Cycle with fresh Eggs
This kind of cycle needs a bit of advance planning. The recipient’s cycle will be synchronized with the Egg donor’s cycle. This is accomplished by administering a combination of two or three hormonal medications. Usually oral tablets alone are used to make the lining of the uterus without the use of injections. Because eggs are not formed, manipulating the cycle to shorten or lengthen it to match the donor cycle is easier.
Cycle with Frozen Eggs
Alternately the couple can opt for a cycle with frozen eggs. The couple can select a donor profile and the frozen eggs will be retrieved form KSOB (Kolkata Surrogacy And Oocyte Bank).
In case of frozen eggs being used, the semen sample is taken when the eggs are taken out from the liquid nitrogen cans. The semen and eggs are fertilized in a laboratory using in vitro fertilization.
The embryo transfer normally occurs two-five days after the eggs were initially retrieved. A blood test will be performed 10 days later to determine if pregnancy has occurred.
What is the success rate of pregnancy using donor eggs?
The success rate will vary depending upon the quality of semen and the overall health of the recipient involved. The per attempt success rate is about 45%. However subsequent miscarriage is possible in about 10-15%.
How are the donors arranged?
You can ask a friend or family member to donate eggs for you or KSOB can arrange a donor for you.
How does KSOB arrange donors?
We advertises electronically on the Web by promoting our own site, appearing on specialty sites relevant to the industry, and by placing classified advertisements. We conduct print advertising campaigns in college newspapers. In addition, we receive candidate referrals from our network of contacts in the medical and social work fields.
How are the donors screened?
All candidates fill out our 11-page questionnaire. We encourage prospective recipients to look at the questionnaire in order to have an idea of the information we have on file. In addition, we ask for current digital photos and childhood photos (if available), a copy of a current photo ID (to verify the likeness / name correspondence), and proof of educational qualification, if any.
All candidates are then interviewed in person. Donors send us their own photos. In addition, we take our own digital photos when we meet donors in person. The photos we distribute (unless identified as modeling photos) have not been retouched or altered in any way.
They are then subjected to medical examination to identify any obvious medical problems. They are also evaluated by a counselor for any psychological problems. They are then subjected to blood, ultrasound and other tests to ensure that they have good eggs and are healthy in every way. They are also screened for Thalassemia, the most common genetic disorder in our country.
Who will the child look like?
The looks of the child depend on the genetic material, half of which will come from the father and half from the egg donor. The egg recipient will not contribute genetically to the child but she will be the one carrying the child in her womb for all of 9months and 7 days.
If I am considering a repeat donor, do I find out the results of her previous retrieval(s)?
If the donor’s previous cycle was arranged through us, we will know the number of eggs retrieved and fertilized. The medical records will be forwarded to your physician for review.
How much does the process cost?
Depending on the profile of the donor, charges may vary. Please speak to the concerned person at KSOB regarding charges.
What are the legal concerns?
The Indian law clearly states that egg donation is legal. The woman receiving the eggs is the rightful mother of the child. Adoption is not needed. The egg donor at the time of donation itself relinquishes all rights to the future child.
