Egg Donors are young, healthy women so you might expect to get a very large number of eggs.
However, clinics must also be very mindful of the ethics associated with Egg Donation, both on the side of the donor and on the side of the recipient.
Overstimulation of the ovaries- Donors are young women with no known fertility issues so they are usually given a low dose of medication to make sure their ovaries react safely.
Ability to carry on with normal life- The donors give up a huge amount of their own time to attend the clinic for scans and blood tests. It’s important that they are given a low dose of medication to ensure they have no side effects associated with overstimulation of their ovaries which may result in hospitalization.
High number of Embryos- Obtaining more eggs/embryos than you could ever use for treatment can raise ethical decisions in relation to what to do with these embryos in the future. In many cases, surplus embryos are discarded or donated to research.
Genetic analysis (PGT)- For some patients who wish to have genetic analysis (PGT) carried out on their embryos it can be justified to obtain a higher-than-average number of Donated Eggs.
At ReproMed we recommend 6 to 8 eggs per Donor Egg recipient. This is sufficient to obtain one or two embryos (Blastocysts) for embryo transfer.
In fact, all our Donor Egg programmes come with a guarantee of at least 1 Blastocyst for transfer. If this is not achieved, then another cycle is provided free of charge.
There are exceptions to this, particularly if you wish to have genetic analysis (PGT) performed on the embryos. In these cases, we usually aim to get a higher number of eggs from the donor.
If you would like more information on any of our Egg Donor Treatments, please contact our expert team of Egg Donor Coordinators.