Oocyte Donation Programme (Egg Donation)
Anonymous egg donation from young fertile women
The egg donation treatment consists on performing an IVF/ICSI treatment with donor eggs.
Egg donation is recommended for women with fertility problems which have not been resolved with other assisted reproduction techniques using their own eggs (IVF, etc) such as older women, women with reproductive disorders or genetic abnormalities that could be transmitted to their children.
In the case of women over 40 who decide to become mothers, egg donation is the most successful reproductive technique.
According to Spanish Law, egg donation is completely anonymous. Our donors are healthy women, who are completely screened for infectious diseases and genetic illnesses. Our staff selects the best donor for each patient based on phenotypic characteristics and blood group. The aim is to match the egg recipient with someone with similar appearance.
In order to donate her eggs, the donor receives a hormonal therapy in order to produce more eggs than she would have in a natural cycle (normally one or two). This therapy lasts for 10-14 days, starting at the beginning of the menstruation period. While taking this therapy, she will do a series of ultrasounds to control the growth and number of follicles in her ovaries, which contain the oocytes. When the follicles reach the optimal size, the egg retrieval takes place.
The egg retrieval consists on extracting the eggs with a needle. Right after the extraction of the eggs, they are fertilized in the IVF laboratory through IVF or ICSI. Eggs can be fertilized with the husband/partner of the patient or with donor sperm.
The resulting embryos are cultured in an incubator for 2 to 3 days. Five days may be required if the embryos need to be developed to blastocyst stage. After incubation, embryos are evaluated and the best specimens are selected and transferred to the uterus.
The embryo transfer is an easy and painless procedure which takes a few minutes. It is performed with a small catheter and no anesthesia is needed. As it is regulated by Spanish law, we will transfer a maximum of 3 embryos.
The remaining good quality embryos are vitrified (frozen) for future trials.
Our donors are really important to us and that is why we take care of them. We do not aim at collecting an exaggerated number of eggs to share them with different patients. We prefer to realize soft stimulation, in order to obtain a sufficient number and good quality eggs for each patient.
Regarding the medication taken by the patient who undergoes the egg donation treatment, the first step is synchronizing the period of the donor and the patient. This is not necessary when the patient is in Menopause.
