If you're working with our in-house donor pool, our ovum donor coordinator will arrange a time for you to view donor profiles. You'll have access to information about the donor's background, medical history, educational level and family history. You'll also have the option of viewing photographs of the donors. Our in-house donors have undergone extensive screening, and we'll discuss any relevant findings from the screening process, including genetic screening and testing, mental health screening, infectious disease results and physical findings.
Once you've chosen a donor, the donor coordinator will confirm that she's free to go through the egg donation process during the time period requested. Then, information about your donor will be given to your doctor and nurse coordinator and your cycles will be synchronized. If you select a donor from an outside agency, the agency will send information about the donor to our office for cycle coordination. For more information, see our FAQ about how donors are screened and selected.
The donor and recipient's cycles must be synchronized so that the recipient's uterine lining will be ready for implantation when the donor's eggs are retrieved and fertilized. This is usually accomplished by administering birth control pills. When the cycles are synchronized, the donor takes medications to stimulate the growth and maturation of a group of eggs.
She's then monitored by ultrasound and blood tests for 10 to 14 days, until the eggs are ready to be retrieved. Meanwhile, you will be taking different medication to prepare your uterine lining for implantation of the embryos. Once the donor's eggs reach maturity, an egg retrieval is scheduled. Your partner or sperm donor will provide a sperm sample on the day of the egg retrieval for insemination of the eggs. When the embryos reach the proper stage for transfer — usually day three — you will return to the clinic for transfer to your uterus.
You will most likely be instructed to start taking the oral contraceptive pill when your period starts and will continue on the pill for three weeks or longer until the two cycles are matched.
Your Nurse Coordinator will advise you when to stop taking the pill and wait for your next period. At the same time the egg donor will start medications to stimulate and grow her egg follicles. When you have been on the hormone tablets for 10 to 12 days, your IVF specialist will do an ultrasound scan to measure the thickness of your uterine lining. This scan uses a vaginal probe which is painless, lasts for only a few minutes and does not need a full bladder. We aim to give your uterus a lining of the right thickness to create the best environment for an embryo to implant.
If the scan shows that the developing lining needs further adjustment, the IVF specialist will change your hormone medication. You must continue this medication until advised to stop and you may need to book another scan.
Your egg donor will also be monitored using vaginal scans during the stimulation process. Once her follicles have reached a satisfactory size and number, we will make arrangements for the egg collection. Your egg donor will have her eggs collected under sedation in the hospital operating theatre. The eggs are retrieved via the vagina using an ultrasound probe as used during scanning to guide a fine needle into the follicles. When the eggs have been collected, the Life Fertility Clinic scientist will let you know if the process has been successful and the number of eggs that have been collected.
At about the same time as the egg collection, your partner will provide his semen sample using a private room at the Life Fertility Clinic unless arrangements have been made in advance to freeze his semen sample or to use donor sperm.
If you are using ejaculate, he should not have ejaculated for between 2 and 7 days before this appointment. If your partner is having sperm extracted by TESA or PESA a surgical procedure , this will be arranged by the Nurse Coordinator and he should not eat or drink for six hours before the procedure. Immediately after the eggs have been collected, the Life Fertility Clinic scientist prepares the donor eggs and the sperm for standard IVF insemination or ICSI direct injection of the sperm into the egg.
The method of insemination will be decided by you and your fertility specialist. The day after insemination, the scientist will call you to let you know how many eggs have fertilised. A scientist will talk to you about everything that has happened in the lab during your treatment, including details of the embryo s for transfer and what has been frozen.
If you are having a fresh embryo transfer, during the time your embryos are in the lab, you will be instructed to start taking progesterone medication in addition to the previous hormone medication to maintain and support the uterine lining into which the embryo s will implant. The embryo transfer is done via the vagina. Your specialist will place a speculum into your vagina as for a pap smear , insert a small catheter through your cervix into your uterus and transfer the embryo through the catheter.
This process does not need sedation. Your Life Fertility Clinic nurse coordinator will give you instructions to continue the hormone and progesterone medication and will tell you when to have a pregnancy quantitative hCG blood test. If you are having a frozen embryo transfer immediately after a freeze-all cycle using donor eggs, or because a previous fresh transfer was unsuccessful, or because you may want to create a sibling later for any child born your IVF Nurse Coordinator will advise you how to go about arranging this.
The minimum pre-treatment evaluation of the recipient couple includes:. HSG dye study of the uterus or hysteroscopy for evaluation of the uterine cavity within 1 year. Blood tests for the female carrying the pregnancy. Because a fresh egg fresh transfer donor egg IVF cycle requires your cycles be synched and in order to properly time the transfer you must do a mock or practice cycle to properly understand the effects of estrogen on your lining.
This ensures that your lining will be thickened and properly developed when the embryos are ready for transfer. During your mock cycle, you will take either estrogen pills or skin patches for approximately 10 days. Your lining will be checked the day you start your estrogen protocol and after 10 days of estrogen.
Your specific protocol will be explained in detail at your baseline appointment or by phone if you are an out of town recipient. This is the second critical step in getting your lining to the proper stage of development when the embryos are ready to transfer.
Your recipient coordinator will be in constant contact with you providing you with step by step instructions on when to start and stop the birth control pill.
After your cycles are synced, you will start preparing for your transfer while your donor prepares for their retrieval. Beginning on day 2,3, or 4 of the cycle you will begin a series of medications, first estrogen, then progesterone.
If the recipient still has ovarian function and a period, they will be given Lupron, which transiently suppresses their own ovarian function, before starting estrogen and progesterone. Simply ensure your sperm is at our office frozen prior to the beginning of your cycle, this can be partner sperm or that of a sperm donor. If possible, it is advantageous to provide a fresh sample on the day of the retrieval to improve fertilization, implantation and live birth rates.
The donor will have their egg retrieval which will subsequently be fertilized and grown in the lab for days. The catheter is then gently passed through the cervical canal and into the uterus using an abdominal ultrasound to provide visual guidance during the transfer. The embryos are slowly expelled near the top of the uterus. After carefully removing the catheter, an embryologist will double-check that the embryos indeed left the catheter using a microscope.
Because a frozen transfer cycle does not require the donor and recipient cycles to be coordinated the first step is ensuring the sperm is at our office for the fertilization. If doing a fresh egg retrieval we require the sperm to be at our office prior to the start of your donor cycle. If doing a frozen egg cycle, the eggs will simply be thawed and then fertilized once we have your sperm and everything else in order.
After fertilization, the embryos will be grown for days — preferably until they reach a blastocyst stage. After appropriately developing, the embryos will be frozen using a flash-freezing vitrification process which ensures the highest quality freeze, thaw survival, implantation, and live birth results. The embryo freezing process is so advanced in our day and age that there is little to no difference in success rates between fresh and frozen embryos.
Following the procedure, the only thing you may experience is a little vaginal bleeding and some lower abdominal discomfort the next week or so, but it is rare for it to persist beyond a week.
It is very important to use a mechanical contraceptive such as condoms or a diaphragm, or to avoid intercourse from day 1 of your stimulated cycle the time you are taking the birth control pills , until one week after egg aspiration. We try to retrieve all of the eggs, but there are usually a few that we are unable to retrieve. This means that you could become pregnant if you have unprotected intercourse. Two to three weeks after the egg retrieval, you will have an appointment for a follow-up.
We will continue to be available to you for questions, concerns, or medical problems associated with egg retrieval. Your participation is appreciated.
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