Egg Donation

Egg donation is an assisted reproduction treatment using eggs donated by a different woman than the one who is going to carry the gestation. In this case the eggs are from a donor.

1. Eggs collection

First of all the donor is selected according to the recipient's physical characteristics. Then, both menstrual cycles of the donor and the recipient will be synchronised. The donor will undergo ovarian stimulation through the administration of hormones aimed to enhance follicular development. Once the follicles are ready, egg's retrieval will be carried out and the collected eggs will be donated to the recipient in order to be fertilized using sperm from her male partner or from a donor.



2. Preparation for the recipient

The recipient woman will need to have her endometrium ready for the embryo transfer. Its development will be monitored by ultrasounds and blood tests. Endometrial preparation can be carried out on a natural cycle or by administrating estrogens, that is through Hormonal Replacement Therapy (HRT). It will depend on each patient's characteristics.



3. IVF/ICSI and embryo transfer

Once the eggs have been retrieved from the donor, they will be fertilised using sperm provided either by the recipient’s male partner or by donated sperm, previously prepared in the IVF Lab. From this moment onwards, it's the same process as in any other IVF/ICSI treatment, thus the recipient's endometrium is synchronized with the embryo developmental stage and embryo transfer is performed in the best moment (between day 3 and 6 of embryo culture).

For the endometrium to be transformed from proliferative (first phase of the cycle) to secretory phase (the phase it has to be to receive the embryos, so they can implant), it's necessary to add progesterone to the HRT that the recipient woman is following. This therapy is maintained until the pregnancy test, and should it be positive, it must be continued until weeks 10-12 of gestation.



4. Vitrification of excess embryos

Should there be any excess viable embryos, that is, good quality embryos, those will be vitrified and stored for the couple’s future use. If gestation is achieved and there are cryopreserved embryos, it will be possible to give a sibling with the same progenitors.

Pregnancy rate for egg recipients is around a 70% in the first attempt, for patients with good prognostic. This rate is progressively increasing if treatment is repeated, thus almost all patients achieve gestation in the end. Miscarriage rate is around a 15% and it’s more frequent in patients older than 40.

Embryo implantation rate depends not only on the uterus receptivity but also on the embryo quality, determined by the egg and the sperm.

Eggs quality in women progressively decreases over the years, thus at the age of 35 it becomes significant. For this reason, by Law, egg donors must be younger than 35. They are generally not older than 30, although the majority of donors are in their twenties.

Likewise, this makes implantation rate being the highest of all assisted reproduction techniques, even though it’s not 100% because neither all the eggs are perfect nor they are aimed to give rise to a born baby.

In some cases the couple not only requires donor eggs but also donor sperm. In those cases, there are two solutions:

1. To perform an IVF with donor eggs and donor sperm.

Once the embryos are obtained, they are transferred into the recipient’s uterus, previously prepared as in any other IVF treatment.



2. To receive embryos donated from other couples.

It is what we call an embryo donation. In this case, the embryos proceeding from a previous treatment’s cycle where the couple achieved gestation and, having frozen viable embryos, they donate those embryos because they are not going to use them. Although in this case pregnancy rate is slightly lower, on the other hand it’s a cheaper solution for the couple, given that they do not have to pay for a complete donor IVF cycle. Donating couple signs its express waiver on the embryos and the legal parents of the born baby will be the couple receiving the embryos.

No, you can’t. Donation in Spain is anonymous; the donor’s selection is made exclusively by the medical team and never under patient’s request. The medical team will select the most suitable donor according to phenotype and compatibility, in accordance with Spanish Law on Human Assisted Reproduction.

Recently there were two milestones marking a turning point in gametes donation:

The first one was fertility preservation that, if carried out before the age of 35, when the egg quality is good, allows the woman wishing to postpone motherhood, to use her previously frozen eggs. This means she can be her own donor in the future, without having to recur to an egg donor. Thanks to improvement of eggs vitrification procedure nowadays survival rate is 98% and results are the same as with fresh eggs.

The second milestone was the possibility to avoid the appearance of recessive or X-linked hereditary diseases in descendants, by performing a genetic study to both the egg donor and the male patient to confirm that they do not share, in the same genes, mutations that we all carry naturally. This is called a genetic matching.

Our patients come first, they are our number one concern. That’s why we have a dedicated team of personnel made up of totally committed professionals, whose main tasks are outstanding work ethics and performance. We offer the best care quality.

We have a tailor-made international department set up specially to take care of our visitors from overseas. Their mission is to forge a direct link between the patient’s medical team in their home country, and the one in CREA. This allows for a smooth flow of information, and lets the team deal with any unforeseen issues in good time.

To contact us, please mail to international@creavalencia.com

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