Understanding the Donor Egg Cycle

IVF with donor eggs is a procedure that involves several steps to produce a good outcome. The first part of the cycle involves syncing the egg donor's cycle and the intended parent's cycle using birth control pills, which will ensure that the donor's eggs are retrieved and the intended parent's lining is ready at the same time. 

Before the ovarian stimulation process begins, the doctor will suppress the LH surge to make sure that the donor and intended parent will not spontaneously ovulate.  If ovulation were to occur too early, we would loose the potential follicles that were recruited and the intended parent's lining would be affected.

At a certain point, the donor receives follicle stimulating hormone, which helps the follicles to mature, a process that typically takes approximately nine to fourteen days.  We will monitor the donor very closely in our office with blood work and ultrasound to determine the correct dose of medication and to prevent Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome.

While the egg donor is going through the stimulation process, the intended parent will be taking hormones, Estradiol, to prepare the uterus for receipt of the embryos; these hormones also improve the uterine lining so that it is ready for implantation. We will evaluate the uterine lining via ultrasound.

Once the donor's follicles are mature, she will receive an HCG injection exactly 35 hours prior to egg retrieval to trigger ovulation. For the egg retrieval, the doctor goes through the vagina, which means no incisions and minimal recovery time for the donor. Immediately following the procedure, the eggs are sent to the laboratory and evaluated by technicians to check their quality.

On the day of the donor's retrieval, the male partner will provide a sperm specimen so that the sperm can be prepared for the fertilization process.  The eggs and sperm are combined, and then placed into the incubator where fertilization will hopefully take place.

Three days after the egg retrieval, skilled embryologists will assess the embryos to determine which ones will be transferred into the intended parent's uterus.  Depending on the situation, your physician and the embryologist may decide to wait until the embryos are further developed and instead schedule the transfer on day five. For the transfer, a painless procedure, the embryos are loaded into a small catheter and placed into the uterus via the cervix. 

Sometimes, the donor you have chosen may produce more embryos then our physicians recommend for transfer. If the embryos meet certain standards, we may be able to freeze them and preserve the embryos for use in later cycles, giving recipients the opportunity for another chance at pregnancy in a future cycle. The cost of a frozen embryo transfer is significantly less than a fresh IVF cycle with donor eggs.

Exactly two weeks from the day of the egg retrieval, you will take a pregnancy test to see if the cycle was a success. If the test is positive, patients are monitored closely in our office with blood work and ultrasound.