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Exploring IVF with donor eggs
For many people, their journey to parenthood would not be possible without the help of an egg donor. Whatever journey had led you here, we understand it won’t have been an easy road and it’s natural to have mixed feelings about moving forward with donor eggs.
To help make your decision a little easier, we’ve put together everything our fertility specialists want you know about IVF with donor eggs. This includes how it works, how you might feel as well as weighing up the chances of success with and without donor eggs.
How does IVF with donor eggs work?
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is one of the most common and successful fertility treatments.
During IVF, sperm are mixed with eggs in a lab and a resulting healthy embryo is transferred back into the uterus with the hope of successful implantation.
Depending on your circumstances, IVF can be done using your own eggs or someone else’s. For example, you may have a friend or family member willing to donate or you can use an unknown donor via a licensed donation bank or fertility clinic, like ours.
For some people, their best chance of pregnancy is to use donor eggs. This can be difficult news to hear, and we’ll cover ways of coping with the emotional side of using an egg donor once we’ve looked at the basics of how it works.
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The IVF process using donor eggs
Once you’ve chosen an egg donor and completed your counselling and consent appointments, your clinic will schedule your treatment plan. The treatment phase lasts around six weeks, not including the break taken for a frozen embryo transfer.
Your egg donor will undergo a partial IVF cycle. Fertility medication will be used to regulate their menstrual cycle. This is followed by a two-week course of injections to stimulate their egg growth ready for collection.
Once the eggs are retrieved, they’re mixed with a sperm sample from your partner, co-parent or sperm donor to fertilise, and allowed to grow for five days, becoming a blastocyst (mature embryo). At this point, embryos can either be used in your treatment straight away, or frozen for a future transfer.
In the run-up to your transfer, you’ll need to take fertility medication to align your cycle and prepare your womb, so that it’s ready to accept the embryo. The transfer itself is relatively quick and painless, with many people comparing it to a smear test.
After two weeks, you can take a pregnancy test to see if the treatment has been successful. We’ll be here to support you with the next steps, whatever those may be.
Learn more about using donor eggs in your fertility treatment, including who it can help, and how we support you throughout.
Coping with the emotional journey
The decision to use a donor is deeply personal, and people can feel very differently about it. There’s no right or wrong.
Most people don’t set out on their pathway to parenthood expecting to use a donor. Finding out that it’s your best chance of success can be surprising, disappointing and confusing.
Sometimes the news comes after months or years of attempts, when you’re already feeling emotionally drained and discouraged.
On top of the emotions, using an egg donor can bring up significant questions. You may wonder if you’ll be able to bond with your baby, and how you’ll feel if they don’t look like you.
Whatever comes up for you at this time – don’t fight it. Feeling your emotions is sometimes the toughest part of fertility treatment, but with time, space, and the right support, this can bring you to a place of acceptance, where you can make the choices that feel right for you.
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Working through your feelings
Counselling
At TFP Fertility, we have specialist counsellors ready to help you explore however you’re feeling, and highly experienced nurses and consultants who can answer any and all questions about using donor eggs in your treatment.
Coping strategies
Going through infertility in any form isn’t easy. It’s an emotional and physical journey, so you’ll need a few strategies in your toolkit to look after your wellbeing and cope with the emotional stress of infertility.
Support networks
Know that you’re not alone. Every year, 14,500 successful fertility treatments use donor eggs or sperm. Finding your tribe can be a priceless source of support, from venting to sharing experiences, such as the peer support forum from registered charity Fertility Network UK.
Learning about epigenetics
It can be a great comfort to learn that even when you use a donor egg, you still shape the genes of any child you carry. It’s called epigenetics, and it plays out in the womb when maternal and environmental signals switch genes on or off, to shape how your baby develops.
Success rates of IVF and donor eggs
Using donor eggs can increase the chances of success from IVF, especially for older patients.
Generally, being young and healthy helps to produce a good quantity of high-quality eggs. Egg donors must also meet strict medical criteria, as well as being screened for optimal fertility.
Data from the HFEA, the UK’s regulatory body for fertility treatments, shows that across all age groups, using donor eggs gives around a 1 in 3 chance of live birth for every embryo transferred, compared to 1 in 20 for people aged 43-50 using their own eggs.
The chances of success* with patients' own eggs vs donor eggs are:
33% vs 34% for people aged 18-34
26% vs 34% for people aged 35-37
20% vs 32% for people aged 38-39
12% vs 34% for people aged 40-42
5% vs 35% for people aged 43-44
4% vs 30% for people aged 45-50
*Measured as live births per embryo transferred
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Age limits for IVF using donor eggs
More people are waiting until later on in life to have children, which means it’s becoming more common for people to have IVF in their 40s and, sometimes, 50s.
There’s no official cut-off for having IVF with donor eggs in the UK. But a doctor will likely only suggest fertility treatment where there’s a reasonable chance of success.
Individual clinics may set recommended age limits for having IVF with donor eggs. While it’s possible to become pregnant at an older age with a donor egg, the chances of complications during pregnancy increase – so your doctor needs to consider this too.
To find out whether IVF with donor eggs could be an option at your age, the best next step is to speak to a fertility specialist, who’ll be able to advise you on your circumstances.
Age limits for egg donors
Egg donors must meet careful criteria to give recipients the best chance of a safe and successful pregnancy. This includes age.
Generally, egg donors need to be aged 21 - 36. This gives the optimal chances of healthy eggs, while also ensuring donors can be emotionally prepared and make a fully informed choice to donate.
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Start your fertility journey with TFP Fertility
Whether you’re concerned about your fertility or are ready to consider treatment, we’re here with specialist advice, fertility assessments, and a range of treatments to support all kinds of parents-to-be. For more information or book an appointment, fill out our contact form and we’ll be in touch.
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