Donor Egg IVF: Overcoming Age Challenges
At UR Crea, we often encounter one of the most common challenges: seeking pregnancy at an advanced age. Work, economic, social, or personal factors often lead to pursuing pregnancy at ages where natural conception options significantly decline. Over time, both the quantity and quality of a woman’s eggs decrease, becoming particularly concerning after the age of 38. This makes natural conception or conception with one’s own eggs increasingly difficult.
However, thanks to donor egg treatments, many women can achieve their dream of conceiving. In these treatments, donated eggs are used to fertilize with the partner’s sperm of the patient.
How does donor egg IVF work?
Donor egg treatments are like conventional In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), but instead of using the patient’s eggs, eggs from a selected donor from our Egg Bank are used.
The process consists of several stages:
- Endometrial preparation: The patient is given the necessary medication to prepare her uterus for embryo transfer.
- Embryo transfer: Once our embryologists select the best embryos resulting from the fertilization process in our laboratories, the transfer is performed. In this case, the embryo is the result of the donor egg and selected sperm. The transfer is performed under ultrasound guidance without the need for sedation.
- Confirmation of pregnancy: Around 12 to 14 days after the transfer, a blood test is performed to confirm pregnancy.
What happens to unused embryos?
Unused embryos can be vitrified for storage.
UR Crea has its own cryobanks where embryos can remain frozen for as long as patients deem necessary.
We use the Fenomatch system to select the most suitable donors for each couple or recipient.
This system allows us to choose eggs that share phenotypic traits with the future mother and perform genetic compatibility matching between donor and recipient.
What are the success rates of donor egg IVF?
Donor egg IVF is highly successful, with a success rate of 75% after two cycles. This makes it a safe technique that also reduces the rate of miscarriages and malformations.
The high success rate is partly due to the use of eggs from young and high-quality donors, eliminating obstacles related to age or other factors.
