Using Donor Egg and Donor Sperm
With egg donation, the eggs from another woman are fertilized with sperm and transferred into the uterus of the infertile woman, who will then carry out the pregnancy. Donor eggs are only used with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures and make up a significant part of our practice.
Egg Donation for IVF
Although complicated, IVF through egg donation produces extremely successful results for infertile couples. During the egg donation for IVF process, the egg recipient (intended mother) is placed on hormone therapy. By giving the recipient controlled amounts of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, Dr. Douglas can determine precisely when the uterus is best able to accept the embryos.
The egg donor undergoes gonadotropin stimulation to cause multiple eggs to grow and mature within her ovaries. Once mature, Dr Douglas will remove the eggs from the donor’s ovaries by a procedure called oocyte retrieval. We usually look for 10 to 15 eggs per donor, per cycle. Next, we will fertilize the eggs with the sperm and have them grow to become embryos. Three to five days after fertilization, Dr. Douglas transfers the embryos in to the uterus of the recipient.
In most patient undergoing egg donation IVF, you can achieve a positive pregnancy test as early as 11 days after the embryo transfer.
Donor Sperm Services for Artificial Insemination (IUI) and In-vitro Fertilization (IVF) Procedures
Patients can utilize donor sperm for either artificial insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. Artificial insemination (IUI) through donor sperm is a highly effective alternative for couples dealing with male factor infertility. Like egg donation, sperm donation uses healthy sperm from a known or anonymous 18- to 35-year-old male. We will fertilize the egg through intrauterine insemination (IUI), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), or IVF procedures. Because of recent technological developments, IUI and IVF using sperm donation have a relatively high success rate.
California Cryobank is our preferred provider of donated sperm. Please review the simple steps below to receive donated sperm.
- Visit California Cryobank’s Web site www.cryobank.com and set up a New Patient Account. Use the following link to complete the registration process.
http://cryobank.com/My-Account/index.cfm?login - Complete the Authorization for Release of Semen (A1 form) located on the Cryobanks site and fax the completed form to our office at 972-612-9601.
- After completing this step, you can access the online sperm catalog to choose your donor. Please note: we ONLY accept “IUI ready” specimens for use in inseminations.
- Set up shipping of the specimens so that we receive the shipment on Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday ONLY. Shipping on any other day may result in the loss of your specimen.
- Patients may only ship one specimen per cycle to our office.
- IVF Plano will return the cryotank to California Cryobank after the procedure.
Read more about using donor egg and sperm and Third Party Reproduction (sperm, egg, and embryo donation and surrogacy) – an ASRM Guide
