Using Donor Sperm Eggs Or Embryos - Surgery abroad with Globe Health Tours.

1 Using Donor Sperm, Eggs or Embryos

Using Donor Sperm, Eggs or Embryos

For a substantial minority of couples or individuals, conception is not possible using their own eggs and sperm despite using various assisted conception techniques. There may be social as well as medical reasons for this including;

older women with poor quality eggs,
premature ovarian failure: this may be because of a medical condition or cancer treatment,
previously failed attempts at IVF,
having a genetically transmittable disease which may be passed onto your baby,
men producing little or no sperm,
men having had a vasectomy,
failure of vasectomy reversal,
prospective single parent,
couple in a same sex relationship.

In many of these instances, the only option may be to use donor sperm, eggs or embryos. The ethical, moral and legal implications of this are great and vary from country to country and culture to culture. Therefore, it is not possible to look at these issues in any depth. Whatever your circumstances, it is vital that you discuss your feelings and fears completely with your partner. Your clinic should be able to offer a professional counsellor since this service is invaluable in helping you to come to terms with failing to conceive a child that is genetically your own.

A frequent concern for prospective parents who may be considering the use of donor sperm, eggs and embryos is the traits and characteristics of the donor and how this will affect your child. Although this is a valid concern, it must be remembered that even babies conceived naturally may not resemble their parents in some ways. However, many clinics have a pool of donor sperms and eggs and will make attempts at matching the donated sperm and eggs to you and your partner. Traits which may be matched include eye and hair colour, height and build.

However, this may be more difficult for couples of some ethnic groups as there is a relative scarcity of donors from these ethnic groups compared with others. In these cases, couples may want or need to find their own donors. It may be possible to obtain sperm samples within EU countries or even from countries outside the EU under certain circumstances. This may be important when looking for an ethnic match. However, laws regarding the import and export of sperm samples and the clinic's use of such samples varies greatly from clinic to clinic and from country to country. It is therefore vital that you discuss these points in detail with your clinic before deciding to undergo treatment.

Using Donated Sperm

The use of donor sperm is useful when the male in a couple is unable to produce sperm himself, the sperm is unable to fertilise the egg or when there is no male partner. As a couple you will most likely be investigated for the causes of infertility in the usual way. Donor sperm are usually screened for various sexually transmitted diseases and are usually kept under quarantine conditions by being frozen for approximately 6 months before being thawed for use. Treatment using such sperm can occur in an induced or non-induced ovulatory cycle.

Almost any form of assisted conception can be used such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) although donor insemination (DI) can also be used. DI is when donor sperm are placed into a thin tube and are then transferred to the female reproductive tract. Further details can be found regarding insemination by reading the page entitled "Artificial Insemination". Examples of artificial insemination include intrauterine insemination (IUI) where the tube is inserted into the vagina and through the cervix so that donor sperm can be placed directly inside the womb. These sperm are then allowed to travel into the fallopian tubes and fertilise an egg naturally.

The use of donor sperm in IVF and ICSI is discussed in more detail in the pages entitled "In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)" and "Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)".

It may be possible to use donated sperm from the same donor to have more than one child. However, this clearly depends on the availability of sperm from the donor and his continued consent to use the sperm. You should discuss this in more detail with your clinic. It must however be remembered that the same donor may have donated sperm to several other couples or may wish to do so in the future. In this way your children may share some genetic links with many other children from other families.

Using Donated Eggs

For infertility caused by problems with the female, donated eggs may be the only viable means to becoming pregnant. Donated eggs may be from a frozen pool or may be harvested from a donor at the time of assisted conception. For the latter to occur both your and your donor's menstrual cycles need to be synchronised by using hormonal drugs. At the time of egg collection from the donor, the recipient is given progesterone to prepare the womb for implantation. Sperm from your partner or from a donor is mixed with the donor eggs (in IVF) or the sperm may be injected directly into the donated egg (in ICSI) for fertilisation to occur. After fertilisation the embryos are then transferred to the womb using normal IVF procedures. Other assisted conception techniques are still sometimes used such as Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer (GIFT).

The success rate when using donated eggs is actually sometimes higher than using your own eggs. This is because in most countries there is an age limit for the maximum age for egg donors. In most countries egg donors are aged 35 years or less. As a result, egg quality is generally better when using donated eggs.

As with sperm donations, the import and export of eggs from country to country can cause problems. The exact mechanism for this depends very much on the countries involved. In the UK for example, all applications for the import of eggs is scrutinised by the regulatory authority called the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Using Donated Embryos

There may be a need to use donated embryos because;

both the male and female in a couple have a fertility related problem,
both the male and female in a couple have a genetic disorder which may be passed onto your biological children,
the female is single and cannot produce eggs, e.g. post-menopause.

The usual IVF procedures will then not be required as embryos already exist. No ovarian stimulation, egg collection or fertilisation steps are therefore necessary. Instead, the recipients womb will be prepared with progesterone as usual and the embryos transferred to the womb in the usual way.

Embryos are usually donated by couples who have completed their assisted conception treatments and have spare embryos left. Generally therefore, your child born from a donated embryo will most likely have genetically related siblings in other families.