Donor egg programs

[BG-MN]

I qualify for various types of donor egg ivf programs that offer a money-back guarantee if I don't have a successful pregnancy after 3 donor ivf cycles. We are finding that the price of these 3-cyle guaranteed programs varies by as much as $15,000! In the cheaper program, we would share a donor's eggs in a given ivf cycle; the clinic would match the donor with us according to race, but we would not have further information in advance or be able to refuse a given donor. (We will get health history on the donor after I'm pregnant.) In the more expensive program, we would have more specific information in advance, and we can refuse a given donor. We only want to have one child via donor eggs and would prefer not to have leftover embryos anyway, so we are leaning towards the more affordable, shared program. The cheaper clinic apparently recruits mostly college students as donors, which the more expensive clinic has suggested poses risks. My question is: how do we evaluate a donor egg program and especially how they screen their donors? Are guidelines published online somewhere, or can you give us some questions we should ask? Thank you!

[Forum-M.D.-SP]

To evaluate the success of program, go to www.cdc.gov/ART/2004, which gives data on all programs reporting to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology and to the Centers for Disease Control. The data is also available for 2005, but only in PDF format. Alternatively you can try the SART website. You should be able to find out your program's success rates, unless they are not reporting or have only come into existance after 2003.

The FDA has very strict regulations regarding donor evaluation to protect you from HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and other infectious diseases. Beyond this, many programs have their own standards for further psychological, medical, and family history/genetic evaluation of their donors. Your programs should be able to share these with you.

American Society for Reproductive Medicine has ethics standards regarding what donors should be paid, but these are only guidelines. They recommend not paying more than 5K in most instances, certainly not more than 10K, to a donor. The website is www.asrm.org.

Hope this helps.

[mature momma]

Hi B,
I'm happy to see you checking into the donor programs in your area. We talked about doing a shared cycle but then decided that in IVF nothing is for sure. If you don't get a large number of eggs to split, leaving nothing to freeze and the fresh transfer doesn't work you have nothing to try again with. You talked about the refund plan. Can you do a shared cycle with the plan? Here you can't. We figure if we have embryos left over we will donate them to help another couple achieve their dream. I know donating is not for everyone. How did your appointment go with your new RE?
Debra:)

[BG-MN]

Actually the less expensive warranty program is only available if you share a donor.  If you don't have a successful pregnancy and need cycles 2 and/or 3, you start over with a new donor.  (By the way, I just sent a message to your personal mailbox over on the 35+ board; let me know if you get it and I'll write more there....)

[BG-MN]

Hi Debra, I got your personal message to me and tried to write you back several times, but it never goes through.  Maybe you have accidentally blocked me?  (It's confusing, but the people who are not blocked have the red signal with the line through it in your In Box; the green signal means the person is blocked.  Another way to check it is to look under "settings" and see if anyone is listed as blocked.)  Hope to talk soon!