In the current era, women get married when they approach their mid-late 30s and start to plan their conceptions plans just newly. Unfortunately, the biology of the woman changes greatly after the age of 38 and the chance of becoming pregnant via natural ways diminishes.

Couples tend to try IVF ICSI cycles several times with their own eggs and sperm, but if these cycles do not become successful due to reasons such as poor ovarian response, lack of quality of the eggs, and developed embryos, then a donor egg cycle will be recommended. In addition to that, women who underwent chemotherapy in the past lose their fertility ability and seek donor egg treatment as the only possible to carry a child and deliver it. Women in the menopausal era can also get pregnant via the egg donation procedure.

Since donor egg treatment involves using the eggs of a donator, the issue can become complexed for the egg recipients. At this stage, recipients must be enlightened about the following:

• What are the ethical standards to choose the ladies and use their eggs?
• What tests do the donor ladies complete before acceptance to the program?
• What are the rights of the donor lady, recipient, and child?

IVF Cyprus Clinic accepts applications from donor ladies between 20-28 years of age. 1 donor lady can donate the eggs only 3 times. Donor ladies are mostly students and are anonymous. Donor ladies have no rights to the children.

From donor ladies all of the following tests are required:

• Thalassemia
• Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis C
• HIV
• VDRL

The medical process for the preparation of the egg recipient and the donor lady :

Egg recipients first provide their characteristics, blood groups, and also the intended month of having the treatments. s IVF Cyprus then matches the donor lady from several options and gets the approval of the egg recipient. After this, the egg recipient is mainly prepared in their home country either by their own doctors or by the partners of IVF Cyprus.  The egg recipient starts using medications in form of pills which increase the thickness of the lining of the womb so that an embryo transfer can take place. This process takes about 12 days after which the couple arrives in Ercan Airport in Lefkosa, Northern Cyprus. In the meantime, the donor lady undergoes the ovarian stimulation period for the development of the eggs. When the couple is in Cyprus, the man gives sperm and the eggs of the donor lady are collected. On the same day, ICSI (microinjection ) is done to fertilize the eggs of the donor lady with the man’s sperm.  3 to 5 days later, up to 3 embryos are transferred to the egg recipient’s uterus.  12 days later pregnancy test is performed. Total stay in Cyprus becomes only 8 days when the couples start their treatments in their home countries under the supervision of IVF Cyprus. Otherwise, the total stay can increase by up to 21 days for the egg recipient which is unnecessary.

WHAT IS EGG DONATION? 

When traditional IVF is not a viable option for individuals, the use of donor eggs or donor sperm may be worth considering. Egg donation is a process that involves a donor who provides eggs to a recipient for the purpose of getting pregnant. 

Who Are The Ideal Candidates For Using Egg Donation?

Female infertility is a factor in roughly half of all the cases that fertility doctors treat. Age and poor egg quality and quantity is the most common factor that affects fertility.  Generally, women that have poor-quality or no eggs, but still want a biological child are the ideal example for the individuals that use egg donation. Also, women with no ovaries but an intact uterus and women over the age of 42 may consider using egg donation.  In the case of genetic factors that individuals don’t want to pass to their children, using egg donation is also a fact that needs to think of.

Who Are The Ideal Candidates for Egg Donation?

Being an egg donor is a serious case where the egg donors undergo lots of psychological and medical screening. To be an ideal candidate for egg donation, the individual has to require all the conditions such as a healthy medical history, physical exam, and ovarian reserve assessment. Egg donors are healthy young women, usually between ages 21 and 30.

How Egg Donation Process is Performed? 

The egg donation process mostly looks like an IVF egg collection and transfer procedure. The main difference is the eggs are retrieved from the donor and after fertilization implanted in the recipient. Let’s see how it is performed step by step; 

1- Hormone injections to induce ovulation; To achieve multiple eggs at one time, the egg donor will get hormone injections. The injections help get a large number of eggs to mature at the same time. 

2- Egg Retrieval; When the eggs are mature enough the egg donor will be ready for egg retrieval. For the egg retrieval procedure, the donor will be put under sedation. With an ultrasound-guided needle, the surgeon will carefully retrieve the eggs from the donors’ ovaries over the course of 15 to 20 minutes. After this, part egg donor’s role is completed. 

After taking the eggs from the donor,  the eggs will be sent to an embryologist for evaluation before being frozen or fertilization.

IVF with Donor Eggs

IVF involves several steps — ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval, sperm retrieval, fertilization, and embryo transfer. When it comes to IVF with donor eggs, the part of the process involving ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval is produced from the egg donor. In essence, the rest is performed in a similar way as it is in the IVF procedure. The donated egg is fertilized in a laboratory using the recipient’s partner’s sperm. After the egg has divided and become an embryo, it is then transferred into the recipient’s uterus. The rest of the embryos may be frozen for a second or more pregnancy.  The donor and the recipient’s cycles are synchronized using medication if the IVF treatment is planned at the same time. If frozen oocytes are used, donor ovulation is not stimulated.

Success Rates of IVF with Donor Eggs

The success rates of IVF with egg donors mostly result from the embryos implanting into the uterine lining and developing into a healthy baby. The study outcomes show that about 12 percent of all IVF cycles involve the use of donor eggs and the success rates of donor egg IVF are around 52 percent.