Good news: 72% success rate reached in egg donation IVF treatment September 4th, 2009
The expected success rate in egg donation operation varies around 50%. But there are factors that may amplify the possibility of success. The first to mention is the professionalism of the medical team. Then the quality of the donored oocyte. If the donors are parents themselves the success chances rises noticeably. And the last point is the usage of the newest technologies. Just a small amount clinics offer all the three benefits. One of them is AVA-Peter, a Russian-Finnish infertility center in Saint Petersburg. The next describes process they perform. This made them able to achieve a 70% success rate in egg cell donation in first half of 2009.
Egg donation involves two persons one is called an egg donor and second is called an egg recipient. The egg donor undergoes IVF process to make her ovaries eggs. The eggs are then fertilised in the lab by the semen of the egg recipient's husband or partner (or a sperm donor). Theinseminated eggs are now embryos, and a single one or two of them are introduced back into the uterus of the egg recipient to form a pregnancy.
Differences between IVF and IVF with egg donation
The main difference between 'usual IVF' and 'egg donation IVF' is that an extra person is needed to make a pregnancy. This woman is the egg donor, whose eggs are used in case if the potential mother (the egg recipient) cannot use her own eggsfor medical reasons to get pregnant. The next is a complete description of all the programme steps.
Synchronising the menstrual cycles
The egg donor and the egg recipient must be at the beginning of their menstrual cycles which is needed to launch egg donation treatment. Even if no longer have a usual menstrual cycle, we can have it induced at the right time.This is performed by prescribing birth control tabletsto the donor and the recipient along with the decided time-table. The pills course is stopped on the same day by both the donor the recipient, leading to a 'withdrawal bleed' in both ladies.
The egg donor's treatment
As soon as the egg donor's period begins, she has an ultrasound diagnostics of the uterus and the ovaries to assure the ovaries are inactive and the uterine lining is thin enough. Your egg donor then takes medication to stimulate her ovaries in producing egg cells. After about 10 days, she uses an additional hormone to make the egg cells ready for collection. Egg collection is made by aspirating the egg cells from the follicles using a needle introduced into the ovary via the vagina. Her mission is now over.
The egg recipient's treatment
Egg recipients may or may not have a normal menstrual cycle. Once the period is induced by the medicine, you may have one or two extra injections of a 'down-regulating' drug to guarantee best synchronisation with your donor. Frequently, you will then have a examination to check that the lining of your womb is thin enough and that there are no cysts before the start of the treatment course. This includes taking oestrogen tablets, cream and patches to build up your womb membrane again. Five days before the planned day for Embryo Transfer, you start taking progesterone in addition to oestrogen.
Inspermation and embryo transfer
The donor eggs collected are inseminated with the semen of the male partner or a sperm donor. They are developed under control in our lab for three or (more usually) five days. For the duration of this step, they go on with dividing and grow. At five days old, embryos become| blastocysts. By this time, our expert embryologists can estimate which embryos are of the most viable quality. On the day of embryo transfer, one or two of the highest quality embryos are incerted through the cervical canal incide the egg recipient's womb using a threadlike, soft plastic catheter. This process is usually fast and painless.
Following the embryo transfer, you carry on with using oestrogen and progesterone medication for two weeks and then take a pregnancy test. If the test is positive, you should have a scan to confirm the pregnancy two weeks later. If a 'fetal pole' is visible on the scan, this gives clinical confirmation of your pregnancy.
At AVA-Peter, we had a 60% pregnancy rate in 2008. This was the confirmed clinical pregnancy ratio after insertion of 2 fresh embryos at the 5-day-old blastocyst growth stage. An amount of children born through egg donation is increasing each year as more infertile ladies know about this type of treatment.