Donor egg

[Alwaysfullofhope]

Hi all,

It has been quite some time since i last posted on here, during this time I've gotten married and undergone another round of IVF, this time we got much further than previous rounds and i was so proud of my body for creating a 4AB grade blastocyst however it did not want to stick - this was round number 4 and due to the money side and the mental and physical side i do think im going to go down the donor egg route.

I know we are not allowed to discuss clinics on this forum however would people be able to advise which is better UK or abroad and if they can recommend clinics via DM that would be much appreciated, this is a complete mind field and im not quite sure where to start my current clinic has a 6month waiting list for a donor egg and not sure i want to wait that long

Thanks!

[Boo718]

hello, I hope you are good. We decided to go abroad for donor. Due to my high bmi, cost in the uk and time to wait.

In Spain we only had to wait 3 months to be matched and have the embryos ready.

It is anonymous abroad (in some places) where as it isn’t at home. That’s something u may want to think about xxx good luck xxx

[ChloeDE]

We went to czech Republic for donor egg treatment for the exact same reasons as you - money, stress and time. A round costs around €5000 plus your medication. You keep all the eggs from your donor and they guarantee a minimum of 2x good quality blastocysts. They now offer a live birth guarantee that's around €10,000 too. From contacting the clinic to transfer date is around 2-3 months.

We chose czech because I am fair haired and blue eyed so it was easier to find a match there compared to Spain or Greece. We had a really positive experience and now have twins thanks to our donor.

Happy to share the clinic via DM if you are interested. X

[Tnthketnf]

I am not there yet, still doing OE but thinking DE seriously as so far things aren't great. I had been looking into it and I believe abroad most of the time it costs less and you get more for your money. Most of the clinics do fresh DE instead of frozen bank and their packages guarantee more.The only reason I would consider UK is the issue of anonymity. In UK I believe the child once at a certain age they can find out details of their donor. Which I would want for my child, to havethe option.

In Spain i was told there's complete anonymity. I was told that in Greece they now allow both open or anonymous but not sure how it works.

[Hidden]

Congrats on your wedding and so sorry for your failed round. If you feel it's time for DE I agree with the others, the three main factors to consider are cost, time and anonymity. For us it was important in the days of DIY DNA kits that our child could find out about their genetic heritage in the future if they wanted to as we intend to be open with them about being DE, however for a lot of people its the opposite (and neither is wrong or right!). This was most important to my partner so that really limited our options in terms of locations and we were fortunate enough to have enough savings left to try one donor round in the UK, which I think is probably roughly double the cost of overseas.

The UK you have options for egg banks of frozen eggs or donor matching - which comes in two types - co-ordinated cycles or freeze all. We had a cycle with a London clinic that did frozen sperm and then insemination on egg collection day, freeze all cycle then an FET several months later. They didn't offer any guarantees in terms of success but did guarantee matching you to a donor within 12 weeks (although a) you might not like them and b) that didn't mean you could start your cycle then - our first donor dropped out and our second had loads of reasons why she couldn't start month in month out!)

The cost was quite crippling but tbh after 6 fresh rounds of own eggs the £££ got quite blurred. There were some real pro's like local clinic (commute into London), one stop shop for tests and meds (whereas often with overseas you are dealing with several clinics), no need for time off work (which was difficult for us in our jobs) and a familiarity of the process. The main cons were the cost and the wait for our donor to be available, but I am forever grateful to her for giving us the opportunity for the family we so desperately long for so in reality I would have let her take as long as she needed.

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer, I think you need to write down the pros and cons of each and then prioritise them for you and you will get your answer. Good luck x

[Ace1991]

by the time I went to DE I was in such a hurry as just wanted to be pregnant asap. We used a London based Egg Bank which if you Google you can browse through basic donor profiles without even logging in. There were so many to choose from and I believe success rates were around 70pc for live birth. They also will help you choose if you send in photos of yourself / partner and wants and needs etc. it was soo quick and easy and within 3 months I was pregnant. They work with a certain chain of clinics so you have to have treatment via their chosen partner clinics. I purchased their largest cohort of eggs which was 10 and they gave me 11. Got 5 blasts and others are in freezer. The successful one is now 3 weeks old and asleep in his Moses basket beside me. I think we paid around £8000 for eggs and maybe £6000 for treatment. Pretty sure it all came in under £14k.

[Lata7384]

congratulations on your wedding. I went to North Cyprus and it costs €4750 for my treatment and roughly €600 for 1.5 months medication. It was very quick. I contacted their turkish clinic first but due to islamic law, in Turkey there is no ED treatment. We were sent some forms to complete with our medical history and egg donor selection, of course they ask a picture of myself and my husband to match the closest donor. I was surprised when they asked us what education qualifications we wanted our donor. Within a week , they came back to us. We stayed there for 3 weeks, 5 free drop off services from your location to the clinic. 5 eggs were fertilised 3 x 3AA, 1 x 4AA and 1 x AB. We had 2 embryos transferred and froze 3 ( €500 for a year). I didn’t take 3 months prescriptions because was not sure if I would succeed. They sent me my prescription upon positive results. The clinic worked together with a pharmacy in East London. You can either collect or ask to post. The medication costs : £535. Good luck whichever decision you take. It’s à difficult one but go with your instincts.

[Alwaysfullofhope]

Thank you for your responses, my husband wants us to go abroad and try one more time using my eggs but im not sure if i want to go through it all again but im going to take some time out and really do my research, im olive skinned with blue eyes i also have dimples (i would love to be able to choose someone who had both dimples and blue eyes) not sure if i can be that picky my husband is mixed race so the olive skin isn't so much of an issue for me, i did have a look at the London egg Bank and we are willing to pay that type of money especially because i would love to be pregnant as soon as possible. I will have a look into uk and abroad i just really don't want to make the wrong decisions.

Thank you All