I am nearing the end of my journey with my own eggs. I have been aware for a while that I need to start considering other options though haven't really made a start on the research.
I wondered if you could share your valuable insights, knowledge and experiences when it comes to donor eggs please.
I am pretty much a blank canvass. I would not know where to begin. Where do I start / how do I start looking in to this? What is the difference between going to an egg bank versus a fertility clinic? What does the process involve? Any information you can share would mean a lot to me as I feel pretty overwhelmed and this is quite difficult to navigate through for various reasons.
Thank you xx
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Skittles11
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We are doing donor egg and I'm currently 14weeks pregnant after 3 failed DE transfers.
A good starting point is the donor conception network - have a look, there's lots of information, including some views from people using donor eggs as well as being the child born through DE. I believe they also do information evenings, which we have not been to.
If you do DE in the UK the donor is not completely anonymous, which means the child has the right at the age of 16 or 18 to find out the name etc of the donor and can make contact if they wish. DE abroad is usually completely anonymous.
We have used a UK clinic, for us it was important that our child has the opportunity to know the genetic background if they so wish.
Our fertility clinic had an egg bank with frozen eggs as well as 'fresh' donors. We chose a fresh donor as her characteristics appealed most to us. I guess using an egg bank you can choose how many eggs you want to buy and would assume they are all mature eggs. In a fresh cycle you never quite know what you get - I think you can either share (get half of the eggs, but not all might be mature) or go exclusive (you get all eggs from that cycle).
The waiting time for us was about 3 to 4months, which was actually quite quick.
In case you wonder how you'll feel about using donor eggs from the emotional side of things, from the moment we had the eggs I felt completely at ease with it, and had no doubt that they were 'my' eggs. I do believe in epigenetics, which basically means that you have some influence on the development of the genes in your embryo by carrying it. I never really think as the embryo not being mine and I have no doubt I'll feel the same about the baby once it is born.
I'm happy to answer any other questions if you have any, my inbox is always open
Hi user20.I've just had my first failed DE round. Did you do anything different on your successful transfer. I'm exploring what else I may need to do with my clinic this is my 5 th cycle and we lost 5 out of 6 DE to the thaw (that's whole other issue)
I'm already on high levels oestradiol Utrogestan. Prontogest. Inhixa asprin
Hi,I was on lubion, cyclogest and progynova and Clexane for all my transfers. In between the 3rd and 4th transfer I did ERA test and Nk cell testing and was diagnosed with high NK cells.
For the 4yh transfer I was on 20mg prednisolone which I think made the difference. I also insisted on progesterone testing on transfer day and they upped my cyclogest dose to 2 pessaries twice daily as my levels were on lower end of normal.
The only other thing that was different was that we used embryo glue for our 4th transfer.
Thanks for this. I think prednisolone is what I need to be on I said this before I had this transfer but my clinic were a hard no. But think I'm gonna push now.
My clinic wouldn't prescribe it without the NK cell testing as there are risk to the baby when taking steroids unnecessarily. Even if they would have prescribed it, the dose would have been a lot lower unless I had high NK cells.
We have twins thanks to our donor. The process can feel quite daunting initially but there are lots of groups on social media to support.
If you use eggs from an egg bank, they will be frozen. Fresh eggs have a higher success rate that frozen. Different clinics offer different packages. We looked at a few clinics in the UK but decided to go to Czech Republic. Greece is also well known for donor treatment but I am fair so thought it would be easier to find a match. I think we paid €5000 plus my medication. You keep all the eggs from your donor and they guarantee a minimum of 2x good blastocysts. It was also a lot faster going overseas.
Send me a message with any questions you have. More than happy to help. X
I am 45, single and after many early losses am about to go through my first treatment with donor eggs and sperm. It is really hard letting go of your own eggs but counselling really helped me and once the decision is made, it’s great to feel positive about going forward again and knowing you have a higher chance of success. I still have a few wobbles but support groups such as this really help.
I am having my treatment in the UK using my fertility’s clinic frozen egg bank (you can also choose fresh but longer waiting times). It took 3 months to get access then you can take your time until you find the right match.
I am at the stage where I have reserved my eggs and am just waiting for my treatment protocol and hoping to start on my next cycle. As far as I understand the treatment and process will be similar to a FET cycle. The clinic also required me to have an implications session with their counsellor which was really helpful as well and let me work through a lot of the niggles and worries I had about moving to donor eggs.
Feel free to message if you have any other questions I can help with. Xx
I was in your situation and couldn’t be happier now I’m pregnant with my donor egg.
I got my head around it as alternative was possibly no child or at best years and years of more rounds and more money. I my age speed was important as didn’t want to be mummy that was too much older than I was already.
My clinic had a long waiting list so I started to research other options. I knew I was in a hurry and after my journey I just wanted to get pregnant asap !
I found the London Egg Bank. I believe this is the UKs largest bank of frozen eggs. Because they are frozen and ready for you things move super quickly. They say with each cohort you have a 75pc chance of live birth. I purchased 10 and ended up with 5 blasts which is exactly what was expected from a stats perspective. I think I phoned them in January and was pregnant in March. My total costs inc drugs was about £14,000. This includes the freeze for remaining Frosties.
To summarise you choose and buy your eggs. ( I purchased their larger package of 10 (but they gave me 11 as must have had odd number )
but they offer smaller and cheaper packages too of 6 ) The bank then send it to your IVF clinic when you are ready for transfer.
You can search the egg bank without joining or paying anything. You can choose from detailed appearance to education and hobbies and I really enjoyed this part.
I believe this egg bank works exclusively with the London Womens clinic so I had to switch clinics when using this egg bank for the actual transfer. I found them much better than my previous one anyway.
I hope my journey helps you on yours and best of luck x
I am in the process of using donor eggs through London egg bank. It’s actually been a straightforward, fairly quick process since initially contacting them after 2 failed IVF cycles with a London clinic, and acceptance that my follicles are not going to produce anything sadly.
We have the eggs. We had to have counselling and all the usual blood tests and scan but it’s far less stressful than IVF and the chances of success are much higher as you are using younger eggs (to be blunt). You will still carry the baby and give birth so as far as I’m concerned it’s no different. We are also using my husbands sperm so genetically the baby is his.
I wouldn’t try IVF again at my age (43) as the outcome would be the same so it was this or nothing realistically. Let me know if you have any questions about the process. 🙂
I am slightly different- I haven’t used an egg bank but instead done a fresh donor round with a clinic in London. They collect the eggs as normal and fertilise they but they then freeze the embryos and then do all the tests on me and then go to FET, I think the cost without drugs was £11k.
It was important for us to go in the UK where the donor isn’t anonymous as with DNA test kits etc we always wanted our child to be able to find out who their genetic mother was.
Hia, I'm also considering DE but in Spain. Haven't done a lot of research yet but just so you know, in Spain egg donation is anonymous. Apparently there are good clinics there such as IVI in Alicante and Valencia.
I had a donor egg (anonymous) from Prague. I am currently 12 weeks pregnant. This was my first with donor egg and I was completely happy with the process. Pm me for more info.
Thank you so much for all of your input ladies. Your advice and input has given me some really useful starting points. There is lots to think about and look into, I imagine I will have many more questions so really grateful for everyone's help xx
I don't have experience with donor eggs but I do have with donor embryo. Start with a fertility clinic. Let them do all the work for you. They have donor eggs and embryos frozen.
With a donor bank you are in it alone and you will still need to have the eggs transferred to a fertility clinic for the rest of the process. More pricey and more confusing and more time involved.
Start with a phone call to a reputable fertility clinic in the UK and let them do all the work from beginning to end.
That's what we did, but we decided to go with a donor embryo because I was already 46 and running out of time.
The process wss seemless and fast. We now have a beautiful son.
Sorry to jump on the thread, I am just starting to make enquiries into treatment with donor embyo due to my age after failed IVF and my husband having male factor. I have consultations booked this month for clinics in the Czech Republic and Spain. I just wondered if you'd recommend anything in particular to ask given your experience? I'm worried about prescriptions and scans thinking how often I visited my UK clinic.And congratulations on your son too xx
Congratulations on your decision for donor embryo. It's the best thing to do at this age I was in the same boat as you, running out of time after everything failed.
The one thing you want to ask is if how many successful pregnancies occurred from the batch you are choosing your embryo from.
It's very important, it will tell you the quality of embryos in the batch and give you a better chance at implantation and pregnancy.
Another thing to look for is the age of the egg donor for the embryo you are choosing.
I would go with the Spain option over Czech republic. I believe their clinic is better. One of my nieces did IVF in Czech Republic and it did not work. It was a fresh transfer. I believe the procedure was rushed and she was sent home too soon. But maybe it was just bad luck.
What are you worried about exactly when it comes to meds?
Thank you so much for replying. I guess how to get the prescription honoured at UK pharmacies, will an email be accepted or will an original be posted that kind of thing. Being a teacher I am restricted to taking holidays at given times and I'm also wondering how my cycle will be managed to fit that having always used my natural cycle in the UK. X
Many countries do not honor prescriptions originating from other countries. Not sure what the law is in the UK. One solution is to find a doctor in the UK, explain your situation, and ask for him to write your prescriptions.
I am also sure the clinic where you have the procedure done is prepared for these kind of issues, they take patients from all over the world, so I'm sure this is something they have already figured it out. I would not stress about it. The clinic gets paid to figure out things for you and the medication is a very important part of the procedure.
I wish you would be able to do this in the US at the clinic I went to, but I'm sure it's a lot cheaper to go to a European country. Doctors here are great but they cost a lot. My son is now 15 months and we are still in debt paying off the money borrowed for the procedure.
Hi tap22 I did my ivf in Cyprus last year and just printed the email out for meds and took it to Asda and it was fine hope that helps good luck with everything hun xxx
Hello! I used donor eggs as i was 49 and had failed egg collection. I used an altruistic donor provided by my fertility clinic (uk based clinic). Waiting time was 3Months and paid around £10k + medications. Out of the 7 provided, all were fertilized but just one made it to blastocyst. I was lucky and i have now an awesome one year old boy that i love beyond anything i have experienced in my life. The egg might be a Donor, but you carry your child and provide for them from the minute they stick until they are in their adulthood and shape them. Who in their right mind would say „they are not yours“???? Wishing you all the best.
Hi, I would suggest the DCN (donor conception network) U.K. also we went to the fertility show live. Lots of stands from different clinics, as well as talks about donor conception.
We attended DCN meetings too.
Our conclusion was to use a donor with known ID. I.e not to use anonymous. But this of course is a personal decision based on our feelings and research and we respect not everyone has the same opinion
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