Donor egg conception - egg bank vs fresh donor waiting times

[Eswyn]

After failed rounds of IVF and years trying to conceive a sibling, we’re now considering the donor egg route. We’re still doing one last round with my own eggs, but trying to have a Plan B ready as I’ve heard waiting times can be very long.

We’d like to do it in the UK so the donor is identifiable, I’m also not Caucasian so not sure if going to Greece, Spain or the Czech Republic would be a viable option. My clinic can’t give us an exact waiting time, they’ve just said at least six months because they work with fresh donors and have a limited frozen egg bank.

I checked online profiles at an egg bank in London and spotted a donor who would be a good fit based on physical characteristics.

Would love to know what the pros and cons are of frozen vs a fresh donor round? It seems like it’d be easier to go with the egg bank option, but I’m not sure if there’s something I’m missing?

For those who have experienced DE conception in the UK, how long was the wait to find a match?

All advice would be very much appreciated!

[Skittles11]

Hi

I haven't gone down the egg donor route yet but it is also my Plan B so I have looked into it a little bit and am interested in what people have to say. My understanding is that biggest drawback of the frozen egg bank is the eggs surviving the thaw. Embryos are much more likely to survive thawing than eggs are. By using fresh eggs and fertilising them with sperm, the chances are increased that the embryos would survive the freeze thaw process.

The disadvantage from fresh eggs though, as you've already pointed out, is time waiting. With frozen eggs the eggs are already there but with fresh the waits can be long especially in UK. Countries abroad don't seem to have the same problem so if you were going to consider somewhere like Spain I think they have much more fresh donor availability.

Good luck with it all, I am following the post to see the responses xx

[Kitkat10]

Hi, I’m in a really similar position and when I ‘researched’ a little into DE and had some consultations, it seemed that fresh had slightly higher success rates. There is more to coordinate but as Skittles11 said, embryos survive the thaw better than eggs.

As this is also likely to be my next step, I’d like to follow and see what everyone says. Good luck with everything x

[Winniebear1]

I have no knowledge regarding fresh donor eggs but am on my second transfer with DE from an egg bank.My first round was not good, I had 9 eggs, 5 fertilised and only 1 made it to the days 5 stage. These were unsual odds and unfortunately, the transfer resulted in a failed attempt.

I used a different donor for my second cycle where I had 8 eggs, 6 fertilised and 2 made it to day 5, one was transferred and 1 was frozen on day 6. I am now in my 2WW. 🤞

You are right, during the process of defrosting, as the eggs are single cells, they are very fragile and don't always survive the throw but as with my second attempt, sometimes they do.

We had no waiting time on either of our DE processes and it was fairly straight forward with the bank being very helpful with matching.

Once we had bought the eggs the bank coordinated with the clinic and it all went well to transfer stage.

Each ndividuals experience is different and I can only comment on what I have been through, I hope it helps

[katymcg]

hi! I'm just starting my round next month with frozen eggs. I 2 had these issues! in the end I went on the list and took what was first offered, which happened to be frozen. As everyone else had said, success with fresh is slightly higher. But I had the issue of not being able to take any meds to sink my cycle with someone else, so wasn't really an option x