Known egg donation

The use of donated eggs can lead to successful pregnancies for women with premature ovarian failure. This is also an option for younger women with premature menopause and women in the older reproductive age group (under an age of 50).

Further, women with chromosomal translocations or genetic diseases, who wish to avoid passing on the diseases to their offspring, now have a chance in being a parent.

The egg donor may be a family member or friend of the woman desiring a pregnancy. At London IVF and Genetics Centre, we only undertake known egg donation for fertility treatments (as opposed to unknown egg donation).

Once you have identified an egg donor, we will assess the suitability of the donor. The donor will undergo a range of infection and genetic screenings. These are based on the HFEA good medical practice guidance.

Then, the donor and the recipient cycles will be synchronised and coordinated. The donor will then use fertility drugs to stimulate the development of multiple mature eggs. The recipient woman will take oestrogen and progesterone to prepare the uterus for embryos derived through egg donation.

We can then use the sperm of the recipient’s partner (or a sperm donor) to fertilise the eggs using either an IVF or ICSI technique. We’ll then replace the created embryo(s) into the egg recipient two to five days later. A pregnancy test will be taken few weeks after the replacement.