Egg donation is the process by which a woman donates eggs for purposes of assisted reproduction. It typically involves In-vitro fertilization technology, with the eggs being fertilized in the laboratory; more rarely, unfertilized eggs may be frozen and stored for later use.
It is indicated in- Congenital absence of eggs
Turner’s syndrome
Gonadal dysgenesis - Acquired reduced egg quantity / quality
- Oophorectomy (surgical removal of ovaries)
- Premature menopause(before 40 years)
- Those who have taken cytotoxic chemotherapy or pelvic radiotherapy for cancers
- Advanced maternal age
- Compromised ovarian reserve
- Others: Diseases of X-sex linkage Repetitive fertilization or IVF failure Ovaries inaccessible for egg retrieval
Once you decide to go ahead with egg donation, you have to register in the donor bank who would provide you with an anonymous donor matching your requirements. Neither your identity nor the donor’s identity will be revealed to each other, but you will have access to all the requisite information about the donor.
Donors are usually young (>30 years) and are thoroughly screened according to ICMR guidelines.
Menstrual cycle of the donor and the recepient are matched.
Donor is started on injections for about 8-10 days to grow the eggs and simultaneously the recepient’s uterus is prepared with hormonal tablets.
Once the oocytes are retrieved from the donor, they are injected with the recepient’s husband’s sperms, cultured in the incubator for 3-5 days and later 2 or 3 of the embryos are transferred into the recepient’s womb. Rest are frozen for future use.
Egg donation has a high success rate of about 55-60% and almost an 80– 90% success rate after four repeated treatment cycles.
