In some cases, donor eggs are required for IVF. This is necessary if a woman's ovarian reserve is depleted, if she has no ovaries and no germ cells of her own. In the desire to become a mother, it is rather difficult for a woman to stop, and in most cases the patient's offer to use donor oocytes is answered with consent. Where donor eggs come from, how to become a donor, how to use donor services and how much it costs, we will tell you in this article.
Who can be the donor?
Egg donation is good in all respects. Thanks to donors, every year thousands of infertile families get the opportunity to become parents. Oocyte donation provides such an opportunity for women at any age. The risks of giving birth to a baby with chromosomal abnormalities are reduced to a minimum, even if the expectant mother is 50 years old, because donor eggs undergo rigorous selection, and donors are thoroughly diagnosed before donation, including for genetic disorders.
Egg donors are divided into anonymous and individual donors. An individual donor is a woman who was found by the infertile patient herself, with whom she reached an agreement, entered into a contract. In this case, the payment for the examination for the donor lies with the customer.
If a woman wants to become an anonymous donor, the Ministry of Health will act as her customer, and the entire examination will be carried out at the expense of the state or private clinics, since then the resulting biomaterial becomes the full property of the clinic.
The donor has rather strict requirements. Only if a woman meets these basic requirements, and numerous tests and examinations have been successfully completed, she can receive admission to participate in the donation program and become a full participant in it. The commission is very strict, it will not be possible to deceive doctors, since each conclusion is confirmed by analyzes and samples.
The donor's legal status implies compliance with the terms of the contract and the terms of the donation program. According to them, the woman undertakes to fulfill all appointments, to provide all data on her health status on time.
After the donation of the eggs, the woman cannot apply for them, they go to the oocyte bank.
How is the procedure going?
After all the examinations have been left behind and the woman has received admission to participate in the donation program, the preparatory stage begins. She is advised to eat a diet for two weeks. The diet should contain vegetables and fruits, be sure - meat and fish (vegetarianism is a contraindication!), Products are taken in boiled, baked or stewed form. Everything fried, fatty, spicy and spicy is excluded. Alcohol should be completely eliminated. One week before the scheduled date of the procedure, you must not have sex.
It is important to give up physical activity (gym, jogging, bicycle) two weeks before the egg donation, and also not to visit the bathhouse, solarium, sauna and not take hot baths. You can swim in the shower in warm water.
The day of egg collection is determined by the results of an ultrasound scan and a blood test for LH (luteinizing hormone). Once LH reaches its peak, a procedure is scheduled. If you delay, ovulation will occur, and the egg will leave the ruptured follicle.
Before the egg donation procedure, they do not eat for 8 hours and completely restrict fluid intake for two hours. On the day of the procedure, the woman does an enema. You must enter the office on an empty stomach!
An ovum (and sometimes more than one) is taken by puncture. Without appropriate anesthesia, it would be rather difficult for a woman to survive such a procedure, so general anesthesia or local anesthesia (at the choice of the patient or the doctor) can be done. A woman is placed on a gynecological chair, she is injected with painkillers, waiting for the anesthetic effect and a thin catheter needle is inserted into the follicle through the back wall of the vagina.
The whole process of egg collection is carried out under the control of ultrasound diagnostics. Most often it is possible to get 1 egg, less often - 2. The procedure takes about a quarter of an hour. A woman needs to stay in the hospital for 3-4 hours so that doctors can monitor her condition and well-being, after which she can go home.
The resulting eggs are carefully examined by specialists, microscopically examined, and placed in a nutrient medium.
If artificial insemination with fresh cells is planned, it can be carried out immediately after assessing the quality of the oocytes and after a couple of days, after assessing the quality of the embryos, they can be transplanted into the uterine cavity of a woman who is a participant in the IVF program with a donor oocyte.
If the egg donor is anonymous, the obtained eggs are frozen and placed in a cryobank on demand. They can be frozen ultra-quickly by immersion in extremely low temperatures, in liquid nitrogen, or slowly - using a cryoprotective liquid.
Basically, donor cells are trying to freeze by the method of vetrification - ultra-fast freezing at a temperature of 196 degrees below zero. After it, the oocytes are more viable, they die less often during thawing, their structure and membranes are not disturbed, and the intracellular fluid does not crystallize.
Frozen oocytes are stored in liquid nitrogen at a constant temperature of minus 196 degrees in special containers. When the need arises, the cells are thawed in compliance with all technological requirements and fertilized for further transfer to the uterus of the IVF program participant.
On the eve of egg collection from an individual donor chosen by the spouses, the menstrual cycles of the donor and recipient are synchronized with the use of hormone therapy.
How to choose an individual donor?
In Russia, unlike Israel and a number of other countries, egg donation among close relatives is not prohibited. So, one sister may well become a donor for another. Therefore, a woman who is shown artificial insemination with a donor oocyte may well exercise the right to independently choose a donor. However, there are some important requirements to keep in mind.
After the couple is determined with the candidacy of the donor, they should conclude an agreement, a sample of which can be taken at the clinic where the couple plans to do IVF. The donor will also have to visit the attending physician of the infertile couple and receive recommendations for additional examination and collection of cells.
Donor oocyte cost
There is no large "spread" of prices for donor cells in different regions of Russia, because the cost is regulated by legislation and orders of the country's Ministry of Health. In private clinics the cost is more expensive, in public clinics it is cheaper. On average in the country, for the right to use a donor cage, you will have to pay a rather large amount - about 280 thousand rubles. IVF with your own egg costs about 130 thousand rubles.
How much will the donor receive?
The donor's payment depends on his status. On the day of the puncture, the anonymous donor receives the amount specified in the contract. Usually, Rh-positive women receive about 35-50 thousand rubles, and women with negative Rh-factor - from 50 to 75 thousand rubles. Payment depends on the clinic, region, additional conditions.
If the donor has the status of an individual, then payment for his services is made by an individual agreement between the parties. He is paid on the day of egg collection, regardless of how many eggs were obtained as a result of a puncture.
Implications for the donor
The oocyte donation procedure does not pose a danger to the life and health of a woman. There are usually no complications during egg collection. In rare cases, negative reactions to anesthesia are possible, but in order to prevent them, an experienced anesthesiologist will work with the woman.
A few hours after the puncture, the donor woman may not feel very well. Dizziness, nausea, and vomiting may occur most often. Small pulling pains in the lower abdomen and lower back can be considered physiological, but if they increase, the pain becomes unbearable, you should call an ambulance.
After the procedure, swelling of tissues (arms, legs, face) may appear, sleep may also be disturbed and the menstrual cycle may fail. Donation is thus not dangerous, the consequences are dangerous.
If the condition worsens one day after the oocyte collection procedure, you should consult a doctor to rule out complications.
As for the moral side of the issue, it can also be called a distant consequence for the donor. According to reviews, many women who agreed to become donors begin to regret it after a while.
Egg donation is controversial in society, and the church condemns it. But reproductive technologies have their own relationship with society and representatives of religion, and therefore it is up to you to become a donor or not. The use of donor eggs is condemned by almost all leading religions as immoral, and here, too, each couple will have to decide for themselves whether to use this opportunity or not.
The advantages of donation are good pay. Cons - in possible complications for health and possible remorse. Recipients should also weigh the pros and cons. The likelihood of pregnancy, minimal risks to the health of the baby is, of course, a plus. Minus - also in the ethical side of the issue. And, of course, in the substantial cost of donor services.
According to statistics, about 10% of women with infertility as a result of IVF become pregnant every year in Russia with the use of a donor egg. It is impossible to count the number of donors, since information about anonymous donors is kept in the strictest confidence and does not appear in reports.
- A woman's age must be at least 18 and no more than 30 years old (in some cases and in some clinics it is allowed to become an oocyte donor up to 35 years old inclusive).
- The donor must have a child she conceived naturally.
- According to the results of genetic testing, a woman should have no signs of phenotypic manifestation (mutation genes are completely excluded).
- According to the results of a medical examination, a woman should be completely healthy (the presence of at least one disease, chronic or acute, is completely excluded).
A woman should not have bad habits (nicotine, alcohol, drugs, etc.). Their absence should be confirmed by analyzes and conclusions from a narcologist, therapist, psychiatrist, etc.).
- There must be no consanguinity between the donor and the alleged father of the unborn child (an adult daughter cannot become an egg donor for a mother if she plans to conceive a second child from the same man from whom this adult daughter was conceived. The mother can become a donor for her daughter, provided compliance with the above age limit).
- Look for external similarity (remember that the oocyte carries half of the genetic information about the unborn child, the other half - the father. parents).
- Find out the blood group and Rh factor of the donor (if the Rh factors and blood groups do not match, the donor and the recipient have a high probability of egg rejection, freezing of pregnancy at an early stage).
- Do not hesitate to ask the donor to show his own child's medical record (carefully read the child's developmental characteristics, history, reasons for going to the doctor).
- Pay attention to the physique of the donor woman (optimally, if the figures of the donor and the recipient are as similar as possible, be sure to ask about the hereditary tendency to be overweight. If the donor is much fuller than the recipient or much thinner, significant problems may arise during pregnancy. gestation).
- Do not underestimate the intellectual abilities of the donor (since intellectual abilities are transmitted genetically from the mother and father due to the DNA in their germ cells, be sure to find out as much as possible about the donor - his education, work, hobbies, level of social adaptation).
- Conduct a full medical examination of the prospective donor (all specialized doctors, ECG, fluorography, all general tests, an analysis for hormones in blood plasma, urine, an analysis for antibodies to all common infections, as well as tests for HIV, syphilis, infections, sexually transmitted diseases. Do not forget a certificate from a dentist, narcologist, psychiatrist).
See the next video for what an egg donor needs to know.
