Women with ovarian failure can still have children but these are generated using Donated oocytes. Oocyte donation is now widely practiced in the western world and has resulted in the birth of several thousand children. The donor is usually a young female aged less than 35 years and having had children her own. Her features should ideally match those of the prospective recipient especially in relation to ethnic background.Although less important, other features such as hair colour, height, build, blood group should match as much as possible. Psychological testing is carried out and in-depth counselling is performed. These are aimed at ascertaining the suitability of the parties concerned and making sure that they are aware of both short-and long-term psychological and social consequences of procreation with donated gametes. Anonymous donation is most ideal and should be aimed for; the donor will however, never know if viable pregnancies and children were generated with her oocytes, or the identity of the children and their subsequent progress in life.

For many couples, being infertile no longer means having to go through life without children. Modern science and continued research in this direction has helped millions of couples all over the world become parents to a healthy child. Even issues that were once thought to make it impossible to conceive a child can now be overcome. One such female fertility problem is having a lack of eggs available for fertilisation.

What is Egg Donation

So what is a woman to do if her eggs have been found to be of poor quality or low quantity? Egg donation is the process by which a woman provides one or several (usually 10-15) eggs (ova, oocytes) for purposes of assisted reproduction or biomedical research. For assisted reproduction purposes, egg donation involves the process of in vitro fertilization as the eggs are fertilized in the laboratory. After the eggs have been obtained, the role of the egg donor is complete. Using an egg donor can significantly increase your chances of pregnancy. Compared to your own eggs, using donor eggs are typically a better option when you do not have a very good ovarian reserve.

Ovarian reserve is the quantity and quality of eggs present in a womans body and this number differs for from every woman. In some cases, in spite of a high number of follicles, a woman may not have her eggs mature due to issues like premature ovarian failure. Other women may have eggs that are incapable of being fertilised or implanting on the uterine wall due to structural defects.

On the whole, donor eggs may be a better option when:

- Premature ovarian failure due to genetic or auto-immune disorders has been diagnosed or has occurred due to radiation therapy or artificial removal of the ovaries

- A woman is over 40 and is going through or has already gone through menopause

- There has been no response to fertility drugs

- There is a high level of FSH in the blood (FSH is a hormone that stimulates follicles to mature into eggs. If its level is too high in the blood, it signifies fewer eggs present in the body.)

- A woman cannot conceive in spite of repeated IVF cycles

- There is a risk of transferring genetic disease, like haemophilia, to the child from the mother

Physical Considerations

Doctors recommend that if a couple is opting for donor eggs, the mother should undergo a detailed medical analysis to check whether her body is suitable for pregnancy or if she is at a health risk. This particularly becomes important for women aged 40 years or more.The uterus is also checked for deformations such as fibroids and scarred tissues that may not allow the egg to implant.

Psychological Considerations

The decision of using an egg that is not yours is a difficult one. The choice of the donor, her being known or anonymous, the ethical or religious aspects, the choice of telling the child, the involvement of relatives and friends and most importantly the parents firm will to use donor eggs are some aspects of the issue that have to be dealt with.Psychological counseling can be very helpful for couples in this regard to make a concrete decision.

Selection of Donor

Choosing a donor is a crucial aspect. She might be a family friend, relative or a person known to you or through some online organisation. If you are already attending a fertility clinic, they too may have a pool of egg donors from which you can choose.

Depending on how you locate your donor, the donor may remain anonymous. For instance, if your infertility clinic offers an egg donor program, you will likely be able to read about a donors health history, physical traits, education level, possibly profession and other general information. However, you will not learn the donors name, address or any other information that will allow you to identify them.

In general, women between the ages of 18 and 35 who are physically healthy, non-smokers and drinkers, with no hereditary or sexually transmitted diseases and who are psychologically fit are most suited to become donors.

Donors Check-Up

In order to ensure that a donor is physically, genetically and psychologically healthy for the donation, she has to undergo a number of tests. These may include:

- Blood tests to know the blood group, blood count and check for any infectious diseases might be passed on to the child

- HIV tests

- Hepatitis B and C tests

- Test for syphilis

- Medical history of the donor and her family to ensure that no hereditary problems are present

- The level of hormones present to know how fertile she is and whether her eggs are healthy enough

Psychological counseling is also advised to know her better as well as prepare her for the process.

Egg Donation Procedure

Once you have decided to use donor eggs, the first step involves consultation with a physician or an organisation providing the donors. This helps in identifying your needs better and also answers any queries you might have regarding the procedure. The consultant also tries to find out your physical characteristics, likes, and dislikes to best match you with a donor.

After the selection of the donor comes the evaluation cycle phase.

Egg Donation Cycle

In the case of pregnancy with donor eggs, a mothers body is not prepared for pregnancy and therefore the hormones have to be artificially induced.

A prospective mother will undergo an evaluation to determine the correct amount of estrogen and other hormonal supplements to be administered prior to transferring a fertilised donor egg. This is done by measuring your blood estrogen level and through ultrasound check ups to observe the uterine lining. The doctor may also give oral or estrogen injections to raise your hormone levels, which you may continue to take for a period of 10 to 14 days.

Then, the donor and the mothers cycle are synchronized with the help of birth control pills. Once this has been done, the donor is given fertility drugs to promote a greater number of eggs being matured during her cycle. Meanwhile, you are given the appropriate dose of estrogen to prepare your uterus for the embryo.

A day before your donor under goes egg retrieval, you are given progestrone vaginally or with an injection. When the donors egg are retrieved, your partner will provide a semen sample that day so that his sperm can be combined that day with the freshly retrieved eggs. After 3 to 5 days, once the embryos have formed, two to three embryos will be transferred to your uterus as it normally would during an IVF procedure.

You will continue to receive estrogen and progestrone doses to help encourage a pregnancy. 10 to 11 days after the embryo transfer, a pregnancy test is carried out to check the success of the procedure.

Benefits

There are a number of benefits to using donor eggs:

- A donor egg from a younger woman increases the chances of conception to 50% as compared to 15% to 18% with your own eggs. This is because donor eggs are of better quality and there are more numbers of eggs available for fertilisation.

- As the donor egg provides a better chance of fertilisation, you may not have to undergo as many IVF cycles thereby saving yourself from the physical, mental, and financial anxieties associated with each cycle.

- Donor eggs provide an opportunity to conceive a child whose genetic make up resembles one of the parents.

- You are able to experience the process of giving birth when the fertilised egg is placed inside your uterus, which is not possible with an adopted child.

Risk Factors

A common fear of parents is that their child will be born with a genetic defect. Donor eggs are not frozen And hence fresh eggs must be used when you opt for donor eggs. Some infections, like HIV, may not produce a positive result until months after the infection, which means, although a donor may be tested, there is still a chance that she, and her eggs, could have a serious infection.The other risk factors are those related with IVF like miscarriage and multiple pregnanacy.

Success Rate

Research has shown that there is about a 48% to 50% chance of conceiving using donor eggs. For women above the age of 40, who in general have a lower quality and quantity of eggs, the chances of conceiving with a donor egg is 5 times more than with their own eggs.

If interested in Surrogacy or egg Donor, India would be an ideal destination for its affordability and its richness of diversity to choose from and Surrogacy Aayush Fertile Hope Clinic.

In India, surrogacy and egg donation as a medical process has matured to the point where some clinics specialize in surrogacy (which generally means they have IVF-egg transfer facilities, help identify surrogates, and assist in the legal/contractual process), generally giving them more experience and a greater understanding of the process than U.S. and European clinics that focus primarily on the more traditional IVF.