Egg donor

From ArticleWorld

A woman who becomes an egg donor voluntarily undergoes specialized fertility treatment so that she will create multiple eggs in one cycle for the purpose of giving them to an infertile individual or couple. An egg donor is most often used in cases of female infertility and is always associated with some other form of assisted reproduction.

Screening

In order for a woman to qualify as an egg donor, she must undergo a screening evaluation. This needs to be a woman, usually between the ages of 20-35, demonstrate fertility by various means and be free of chronic or acute illness. She is then screened for drug use, genetic diseases and sexual risks that may place her at higher risk of transmitting HIV. Medically, she is evaluated for the presence of several sexually-transmitted diseases, particularly HIV, Hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

Procedural aspects

An egg donor may donate to an individual or couple she knows or to someone she doesn’t know. In either case, there must be legal documentation indicating that the egg donor has chosen to give up any legal rights to the eggs or to the offspring they generate. Doctors first synchronize the menstrual cycles of both donor and recipient. The donor then undergoes medical treatment (in the form of injections, generally) that stimulates the ovaries to produce many eggs. At the time when normal ovulation would occur, the eggs are harvested by means of ultrasound guidance, using a needle inserted through the vagina—one that is long enough to reach the ovaries and collect the eggs.

Once the eggs are collected, they are fertilized with either the sperm of the male member of the couple or the sperm from a donor. The resulting zygotes are incubated in the laboratory and allowed to develop into tiny embryos. Usually several embryos are considered viable and are inserted into the recipient uterus. Multiple embryos are implanted with the expectation that only one or a few survive, however, in rare cases, there can be more developing fetuses than occur in a normal pregnancy. Depending on the fertility clinic, one cycle of treatment using an egg donor can have a better than 50% chance of achieving a viable pregnancy.

Risks

Using an egg donor is not without risks. A donor may test negatively for the HIV virus in the early stage of the infection but can still pass on the infection to the recipient. The donor, herself, may suffer a complication from the retrieval procedure. Some genetic diseases may not be found at screening and can be passed on to the fetus. Finally, the risk of a multiple pregnancy, with its associated fetal and maternal complica