Egg Sharing vs Altruistic Exclusive Donor

[Refocus]

Hi, so after some time out to undertake more tests and get our heads round our options, I'm finally on the waiting list in the UK for an egg donor. But now we're struggling to decide which of the two above to go for?! Or even egg sharing with an altruistic donor. We desperately want to be able to have siblings from the same donor but it's quite a bit more expensive to go exclusive and you might still only end up with the same number of eggs as with egg sharing! People's thoughts and experiences would be greatly appreciated xxx

[Doglover7866]

We opted for egg sharing. We thought opting for all eggs from one donor doesn’t really give you any benefit as you never know how many you will get. Also egg sharing is quicker as more women share to keep their costs down. Our donor is going through IVF herself so it feels more like a joint effort, if that makes sense xx

[Hollibob]

We did a DE package with access fertility offering a % refund if you don’t end up with a baby.

Our donor has no children herself yet and it was her first donation cycle.

There were 11 eggs collected and we ended up with 1 being transferred and none to freeze....the package guarantees you a certain amount of eggs, but no guarantee on blastocyst numbers.

If you go for shared, just make sure you check what % eggs goes to each of you.

Our original clinic (no packages) told us we could be waiting up to a year, but with access fertility we had started treatment in 4 months...

[Refocus in reply to Hollibob]

Sorry for the delay in responding. I guess you did egg sharing then? We're with access but the waiting time is down to the clinic, not access as access are just the financers?! We've requested all three options and will decide when we get the first call, although I doubt we'll be any clearer then than we are now! Xxx

[Hollibob in reply to Refocus]

All the eggs that were collected were given to us.

I think the clinics that access work with for donor cycles are actually more quicker than other places.

We had our first clinic appointment at the end of October and egg collection was end of January...

[Refocus in reply to Hollibob]

Oh wow, that's incredibly quick! Our clinic said 6-8months (we weren't overly specific on our requirements)! Fingers and toes crossed that it's quicker than that. Xxx

[Cinderella5]

Our donor is solely doing egg collection for us and We went abroad for this reason as it's cheaper. We felt that was important to us as we felt she wouldn't be over stimated in order to provide a huge amount of eggs so they could be shared. I am so feel that less drugs should mean better quality. I don't have evidence to back this up but when I was cycling I was on a high dose and asked our clinic if that affects egg quality and they said it does. Tough decision as some ladies don't always get blastocysts to freeze and there is no way of knowing. Good luck with your decision!xx

[Doglover7866]

Our clinic said 6-8 months. We started our wait at the beginning of November and got a donor in Jan. I think they give you worst case on waiting time. We start medication tomorrow so wish us luck. Will keep you updated with anything that may help x

[Refocus in reply to Doglover7866]

Good luck!!! Xxx