DONOR EGG TREATMENT AND OVERVIEW – INFO FROM A DENVER FERTILITY CLINIC

Egg donation is a highly effective treatment for infertility that is generally brought on by decreased ovarian function.  This problem can occur at any age, but is more common in women in their late thirties and forties.

For women who are unable to conceive using their own eggs, donor egg treatment offers the highest pregnancy and delivery rates of any fertility treatment, while still allowing the woman to carry a child and experience pregnancy.

New techniques and solutions have allowed donor egg treatment to overcome the high cost and donor availability issues that were commonly associated with traditional donor egg programs, and made this option unaffordable to many patients who needed to use an oocyte donor.  This means that more patients are able to pursue the oocyte donation program than ever before.

Shared Donor Selection

Only donors who meet stringent screening requirements are accepted to the donor program.  Preferably,for a ‘shared egg donor’ program, egg donors who have had a previous successful cycle (an ongoing pregnancy) would be accepted for a shared cycle.

The past cycle is evaluated for normal ovarian response, normal fertilization rate, viable egg quality and good embryo quality.  Past performance of a shared donor is a solid predictor of her response with a future cycle.  Most of the donors who have a high response in their first cycle are good egg donors in future cycles.

Shared cycles are often split between two recipients. By using these criteria for selection, it is anticipated that each recipient should receive a minimum of 4 mature eggs.

Frozen Egg Bank

Emerging breakthroughs have provided the ability to successfully freeze a woman’s egg.  New technology allows women to have the option to choose fresh donor eggs or frozen donor eggs.  Both the fresh and frozen eggs offer similar success rates and provide women a wide variety of donors to choose from.

Three important choices must be made before beginning donor egg treatment:  the type of donor treatment (shared or unshared; frozen or fresh), the donor, and the financial program that best suits you. Rocky Mountain Fertility Center offers numerous options for treatment and financing.