Egg donation allows women to become pregnant even when they lack eggs of their own, or their eggs are of poor quality. The technique is most commonly used in women who are unsuccessful after undergoing multiple cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF), those with premature ovarian failure or elevated FSH levels, and those over the age of forty-three. The combination of young eggs and optimal preparation of both donor and recipient makes egg donation a very successful fertility procedure.
The process of egg donation requires that the components of a single IVF cycle be divided between the donor and the recipient. The donor undergoes the initial steps of IVF, including ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval, and the recipient undergoes the embryo transfer.
Both women’s cycles must be synchronized using birth control pills. When the cycle begins, the donor is administered the medications required for egg follicle development, while the recipient takes a combination of estrogen and progesterone to prepare the uterine lining for implantation. Once the donor’s eggs are mature, they are retrieved and fertilized in the laboratory.
Typically the embryo transfer is scheduled 3 or 5 days later. The recipient continues to take estrogen and progesterone through the end of the first trimester to mimic the hormones produced by the ovary in natural conception. At the end of the first trimester (twelve weeks gestational age, or approximately ten weeks after embryo transfer), when the placenta is producing enough hormones. Estrogen and progesterone supplementation is stopped.
