Following miscarriage at 6 was on my fresh ivf cycle, I have been advised that my FSH level is 28.8, so the percentage of me getting pregnant again through ivf using my eggs is down to 10%.
The consultant advised that I have 50-60% chance of a healthy pregnancy using donor eggs. But that it takes about a year to get donor eggs.
Has anyone had any experience of using donor eggs? What was your experience in the UK? I’ve read online that going abroad, say Spain, is much cheaper and quicker, is that right in your experience?
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Eltel81
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All my bloods are normal but due to my age (39...almost 40)we got we had a 5% chance of success with my own eggs in future IVF cycles. For that reason we chose to go ahead with DE as we felt that we were just chucking our money away continuing with mine. No experience of the UK. We opted to go abroad for treatment and got a donor match within around a week so quicker than here....think my nearest private clinic is around 6 months and very expensive. We also wanted fresh donor eggs as opposed to a frozen eggs - this can make it more expensive. If you do your research correctly then it does indeed cost less than doing it locally....we had earmarked Czech Rep, Athens & Spain (although a lot of the Spanish clinics were fairly expensive) and decided on Athens. If you decide to do this then just make sure the prices you are comparing are giving you the same cost break down, for example does it include meds for donor, embryo freezing costs, frozen transfer costs.xx
Thank you Cinderella5, that’s the sort of info that I’m after. I too think it’s a waste of time to continue with my own eggs, given the small chance and heartache if it fails, just don’t think I can cope with that anymore. My partner wants to carry on with the nhs funded ivf, just I case, but I don’t want to. It’s do hard because he’s blindly optimistic and it drives me insane!!
We only got 3 blastocysts from 2 cycles. To be honest I went on with my NHS rounds as it was me that was having trouble accepting that my eggs my be "too old" even if I did get it shoved down my neck at every opportunity and hubby wanted to move to DE. However in the background I was making plans and looking at clinics and contacting them for information so we could move at the earliest opportunity if necessary. I understand why you dont want to carry on with crappy statistics but at the same time you could get lucky but yes it does get harder emotionally....its almost like you expect a failure! Have you many cycles to go or embryos to use up? At the same time be under no illusion that DE is not a guarantee unfortuantely, we still dont have a BFP but at the same time the odds are far more in our favour of success.xx
We've had to go to Spain for our donor eggs. It did take some time though to find a good match for us. We had egg egg but only 2 got to day 5 blast. We only transferred 1 because of my age 45 they say multiple births not an option.
My first transfer was bfn and we've since had 2 cancelled cycles. We hope to try again after Christmas with our last fet.
They are expensive as we paid €8995 & €895 to freeze embryos and additional test fees . So app €10,000.
It will be and additional €2,500 -3000 for our next transfer.
Fingers crossed we will have our little bundle of joy next year.
Good luck.
So sorry to hear about your miscarriage.
I had a cancelled cycle in Jan due to not responding to the meds,I also had high FSH level and I'm now 41, we decided to go down the DE route and chose a clinic in Czech Republic, they are very professional and have very high success rates and there is no waiting list, the donors are also anonymous. Sadly my 1st cycle with fresh DE ended in a MMC end of Aug and I am now currently on my 2ww with a FET. Im definitely glad I chose to go abroad xx
I think it worked out at about 4k for treatment and then meds on top and scans in this country and of course flights and accommodation, you can fly direct from Stansted and flights are pretty cheap. You can pay 300 euros per year to keep eggs frozen and then it's 400 euros per frozen transfer plus meds. Feel free to PM me if you would like details of the clinic
We opted for Spain as there are lots of flights and people we know have used the clinic we chose. It took a while to find a match due to my height (apparently the Spanish are generally quite short and I am fairly tall). We decided donor as I was given a 1% chance with my own eggs - with or without ivf.
Round 1 Dec 2017 = bfn
Round 2 March 2018 = double bfp, first ever, over the moon however sadly ended in an anembryonic pregnancy (empty sacs)
Round 3 October 2018 = single bfp, 12 week scan due on Christmas eve.
And we still have 2 frozen embryos.
First fresh round cost around £7k including meds for the donor etc. Had to add travel and accommodation costs on top as well as local scans.
Follow up frozen transfers cost around £2k plus drugs, flights and accommodation.
So choose a good clinic near an airport that is easy to get to with plenty of accommodation to choose from. Xx
We went straight to a Spanish clinic for DE as recommended by our NHS consultant after our first (and only funded) failed cycle.
The waiting list in the U.K. is longer and the treatment is typically more expensive. Also you’re often sharing eggs or getting a specific number or frozen eggs (6 seems to be the magic number). Our cycle including drugs, scans over here, flights/accommodation and embryo storage for 2 years was about €10k.
We were matched with a donor within 10 days. We got 15 eggs, 8 fertilised and were grade 5AA. We were very lucky and fell pregnant on our first DE cycle. Our baby boy is due in less than 2 weeks and we still have 6 embryos on ice so we can go back and give him a sibling.
Donation in Spain is also anonymous which makes things less complex. Also Málaga is easy to access for us from our local airport. There aren’t very many clinics in the U.K. that specialise in egg donation and travelling to London from Newcastle for treatment would have been the same for us as travelling to Spain.
Hi Eltel81. I know this post is about a month old but thought I would share my experience. I am currently having donor egg treatment in the NW at Manchester Fertility and have had no delays in finding a donor or receiving treatment.
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