Since birth, women have about 400 thousand oocytes in their ovaries, which will mature when they reach adolescence and youth (that is, the beginning of the female fertile period) and month after month a mature egg is produced with those oocytes, with the potential to be fertilized to become an embryo and continue its process until the birth is carried to term.
This is how women’s bodies prepare for pregnancy and childbirth. However, there are times when oocytes atrophy, and lose the potential to become eggs and be fertilized, so egg donation becomes the best alternative to have a child through Assisted Reproduction procedures.
These are the main qualifications of an egg donor:
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In general, egg donors are women between 20 and 30 years of age who are healthy and willing to give their eggs to a recipient. They can be known to the intended parents or anonymous, who are usually selected and recruited through egg donation agencies, so they are not known by the couple.
It is important for couples to find an intermediary to select donors to avoid legal problems later.
In order to make an egg donation, the donor woman must be accepted by the clinic and meet certain requirements
• Physical examination and tests for infectious diseases: Finally, the gynecologist indicates a series of medical tests to check the health status and to be accepted as an egg donor.
Egg donation, also known as ovodonation, is a technique in which one woman (donor) delivers the eggs to another (recipient) in order that the second can have a child. This donation can be altruistic by a friend, relative or sister to maintain the physical and genetic characteristics of the family, or, it can be by an unknown person through a professional service and through remuneration.
In any case, the donor must know that the eggs she donates will form a human being from whom they will have no rights or obligations. Precisely for this reason, the option of a professional service is usually used, where anonymous donors are used and they do not get to know the recipient woman or the future parent´s couple.
In general, egg donation is recommended for women who want to have a child naturally but have not managed to get pregnant due to a situation with their eggs. This may be, because the body did not respond to hormonal stimulation treatment of the ovaries, or the quality of the eggs or embryos have been low in previous cycles of In Vitro Fertilization, being born without ovaries or because having reached menopause. In other cases, women opt for egg donation when they suffer from a genetic disease that they do not want to pass on to their children.
The people who can benefit from this technique are:
To donate her eggs, the donor woman must undergo pharmacological treatment with the use of hormonal drugs that stimulate the production of ovarian follicles in the ovaries in an ovulation cycle; this will be monitored by ultrasound and checking blood hormone levels. Once mature, the eggs will be removed using a simple puncture procedure under local anesthesia.
Once extracted, the eggs are analyzed by an embryologist to select the best candidates to be subjected to the In Vitro Fertilization process, in which they will be artificially fertilized to be implanted in the recipient woman and this way achieve pregnancy.
Per the recommendation of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and for the health and safety of the donor, it is recommended that a woman can donate up to six times throughout her life.
All women who wish to be an egg donor in Mexico should be screened for:
While not all tests are necessary, they are added based on your recipient’s wishes and are recommended to be performed to rule out potential health problems or IVF cycle failures.
The answer is no, this process has no impact on the future ability to procreate children. Women are born with about 2 million eggs, although the body selects only one egg in each cycle to ovulate. A group of ovules begins the maturation process, month after month, so it has no impact.
Normally, the symptoms that the donor feels when going through an egg donation process are minimal and similar to those that occur during menstruation or slightly more intense:
In some more complex cases, conditions such as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, bleeding and infections may occur, however, these can be avoided when you go to a specialized center.
If you are considering becoming an egg donor in Mexico, you should know that, since the selection process begins, which takes a couple of weeks, the donor will be involved for 4 to 6 weeks in the entire process. You may require brief visits to the clinic for blood tests and ultrasound. Only on the day you are scheduled for egg retrieval will you be in the clinic longer than usual. Most donors can continue to work or go to school during the process without any problem.
The recipient woman’s uterus must be synchronized with the donor’s stimulation so that they are ready at the same time. If the recipient has regular menstrual cycles, a medication is used to suppress the activity of the ovaries and menstrual cycle; Once the donor starts taking the medication to stimulate her ovaries, the recipient starts taking estrogen so that the endometrium (lining of the uterus that will form the placenta) develops.
Once the egg retrieval time from the donor approaches, the recipient will begin to consume progesterone to allow implantation of the embryo, meaning, the already fertilized egg, will be transferred to the recipient’s uterus three to five days after fertilization. The recipient woman will continue to take hormones during the first trimester of the resulting pregnancy.
The egg recipient must undergo tests similar to those requested in an IVF cycle:
In addition, it is recommended for the couple to be advised by a mental health professional due to the complexity of the IVF process and the reaction to infertility. Also, the couple should contact a doctor who specializes in high-risk pregnancy, of women over 40 years of age.
Egg donation has a very high success rate, as it reaches 90% effectiveness in IVF cycles. This success is independent of the woman’s age, and is even greater compared to the eggs cryopreservation from a woman over 30, especially when using professional services, since donors are usually very young healthy women.
On the other hand, recipients who have a healthy uterus and good health are more successful in IVF with egg donors, with a very high success rate in pregnancies that reached happy term.
In the United States, egg donation costs range from $5,000 to $8,000 dollars. However, these can increase according to the characteristics of the donor, in addition they do not contemplate the tests and other expenses that are required and that can make the bill too high and discourage couples from following the process.
This is why couples choose to travel to Mexico, where egg donation has a considerably lower cost.
Egg donation requires the donor´s and the recipient´s anonymity, as well as the confidentiality guarantee regarding the personal donor´s data and identity, both by egg banks and reproduction centers. In this way, couples or women recipients will be able to access the donor´s general information, her physical characteristics, genetics, age, clinical history, but not her identity.
The only exception to knowing the donor´s identity is if circumstances arise that imply a danger to the health or life of the child, but without giving publicity or sharing the information to third parties.
The donor will not have any knowledge about the receptor, the couple or the child born as a result of the procedure. Both women must commit to keeping their data anonymous and not to seek information from one another.
Beyond the economic remuneration, being a donor helps other people to build a family. Many couple´s dream which for various reasons is sometimes difficult, and by becoming a donor you could help them fulfill a dream. In addition to performing an altruistic action, donating eggs will not affect your daily life´s activities because the donation process does not require too much time.On the other hand, women who have a hereditary genetic disease are also helped so that it is not transmitted to their future children.
At The Fertility Center Mexico we know that the process to parenthood is different for each person, and although it can be complicated, the moment of carrying a baby in your arms makes it worthwhile. That is why we offer you all the viable options so that you can make your dream of starting a family come true.
Schedule your appointment through our contact form, meet the fertility specialists who will help you fulfill your dreams of being a mom at a lower cost than in the United States. We will gladly assist you!
1.- Schedule your appointment
2.- Talk to our specialist
3.- Prepare your studies
4.- Attend your consultation
5.- Start your treatment plan
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