IVF WITH EGG DONATION: IS IT FOR ME?

Over 75% of women who are more than 45 years old and who resort to IVF as a treatment option, make use of an egg donor to conceive a baby. Every year, this method helps women to give birth to thousands of babies worldwide.

If you are more than 40 years old or if you can not produce good quality eggs, egg donation can help you have a baby. Egg donation is also strongly recommended in cases with high risk of transmitting a genetic disease to the baby, such as sickle cell anemia or Mediterranean anemia (thalassemia), when standard PGD methods fail.
You can choose the physical characteristics of the donor as well as the donor's origin, level of education and profession.
 

In Greece, the legislation protects donor anonymity. Legislation also requires young donors (they must be up to 30 years old maximum). All donors must have passed psychological, medical and genetics tests.
The cycle of the egg donor and egg recipient need to be carefully synchronised.
 

The donor has treatment to stimulate her ovaries and produce several mature follicles for fertilization. When her follicles are mature, the oocytes will be collected by inserting a needle through the vagina to puncture her follicleswhile she is under sedation, under ultrasound control. Certainly, donors sign agreements giving up all their parental rights to any resulting child born through donation.

Subsequently, your partner's sperm (or donor sperm) will be combined with the donor oocytes in a wafer embryological laboratory. Two to three days after egg collection and fertilization fertilized follicles will become a ball of cells called an embryo.

The doctor - fertility specialist - will do the embryo transfer by inserting a thin catheter into your uterus through your cervix. Usually we transfer 2-3 day (cleavage) embryos.

Any high quality supernumerary embryos may be frozen for future use, should the cycle fail. If the treatment is succesfull, the embryo will implant and it will continue to grow. The transfer could result in a twin pregnancy, but this happens quite rarely.
You will have a B-HCG pregnancy blood test two weeks after egg collection.