Donor Eggs

Hi, I am 42 and have had 4 mc.  I have a phone consult with a clinic on January 7th.  They are in New York and I am in Illinois.  I'd love to hear from anyone who has gone through this procedure and if there is any advice you can give or any questions I can ask the doctors.  Thanks! - Sharon

[tina1111]

Hi Sharon and welcome to our group.  There are many women here that have used donor eggs with great success. I know one that just got a bfp last week with donor eggs.  I just turned 43 and was going to use donor eggs. But, our insurance doesn't cover any of the procedure. We opted for donor embryos instead. It was about 1/4 of the cost. We are waiting now for the transfer.

I am curious. Why all the way to NY when there are such great fertility facilities in IL?  There was one there that I was considering just due to the fact their donor egg IVF was about 1/2 of what it is here in FL.

[sharon7222]

Hi Tina.  Thank you.  I heard about CNY Fertility out of Syracuse in doing research.  Their cost is 11k for one try plus meds, which is a lot cheaper than what I could find here in Illinois.  You can also do a split cycle for about 8k including meds, which is what I was going to do originally but then decided on the single cycle.  Also, my sister lives about an hour away from Syracuse so I can stay with her.  I have to pay $7,500 up front and then they offer where you can pay the balance of $3,500 in a year of no interest payments.  What center in Illinois were you looking at?

When are you doing the transfer?  That has got to be very exciting for you!  

[YvetteY]

Hi Sharon:

We just did an ET using donor eggs and my DH sperm.  They retrieved 50 eggs from our donor (she was 29 and a proven donor).  We didnt split the cycle with anyone as this wasn't anything our clinic offered.  She had great egg quality, 32 fertilized and 23 made it to the 5-day mark.  They transferred two embryos and I did get a positive pregnancy test.  this just recently happened and I've yet to get the 2nd beta results.  They froze 21 embryo.  I dont know the grades and what not.  

It was very positive experience...just difficult finding the right donor.  We got our donor through an egg broker  (X & Y consulting) and she had donated before with positive outcomes.  Our ED was 29 years old.  

I am 42 and will be 43 in June.  I had 5 miscarriages prior to doing this (between end of 2006 and 2007 - my own old eggs)  We looked for donor since Dec 2007 to September when we got a reliable donor.  It seemed to take forever to get a donor and then to finally do the procedure.  Almost a year!   We tried to find a donor on our own, but that was a pain in the rear so we used the X & Y consulting.  The clinic had a pretty big waiting list at our clinic and their donors list was scanty.   We were4 able to see a profile of the donor and see pictures of her as well as childhood pics.  

So my advice is find a donor and it's helpful if she's done this before, that she is responsible, and that she mature for her age.  The 19 and 20 year old's are dingbats!  Make sure the donor can commit to the time and don't try to find your own donor on the internet (we went thru 2 flaky girls) who just wouldn't commit.  If you have any other questions I can answer them....I just went through this.  I haven't had an ultrasound yet to confirm that it's a "viable" pregnancy just a couple of hcg's.   The embryos were great looking and the embryologist said she didn't think we'd have to go through the ET again.  I was worried that the first time might not work.   The cost for the clinic and agency was close to $16K.  I say it's this child's college fund! LOL!  So it's going to be community college for this little one!  

[YvetteY]

PS feel free to send me a private message and i can answer any specific questions.

[40smama]

I delivered a healthy, bouncing baby boy last April via donor eggs.  This was one of the most positive experiences of my life!  Getting started as Yvette said, was probably the hardest part but once the donor was selected off we went on our journey.

We tried IVF w/my own eggs but it was cancelled the day before retrieval due to lack of ovarian stimulatin - common in my age (43 at the time).  Rather than try another cycle w/different meds, we went straight to donor eggs - i probably would've done skipped trying w/my own eggs if I'd have gotten all of the stats.

32 eggs were retrieved & 28 fertilized.  We ended up w/26 embryos & we transferred only one embryo that was the highest grade.  The re and embryologist gave us an 85% chance of success & they were right!  I went on to have probably to have a wonderful pregnancy considering the fact that I was 44.  Oh, and we have 11 frozen embies as well if we should choose to give our baby a sibling.

Please pm me if you have any questions & best of luck to you in all of your endeavors! - jen

[robyn53]

Does anyone have information on using an agency and the potential for a donor backing out and the recipients parents losing money if that happens?
Thanks

[40smama]

Robyn - I really don't know of any agency in particular - the best thing to do is to consult a lawyer specializing in reproductive issues in your state.  When you do sign all of the massive paperwork in the beginning of the cycle, ask these questions (or even before the cycle begins).  Your fertility clinic should have some straight forward answers because these are good questions.