Egg Donation
- Being Realistic…Realistically assessing your own eggs
- Can We Afford Egg Donation
- Egg Donation - When you are Not a Traditional Family
- Egg Donation, Lawyers and Contracts 101
- Egg Donation-General
- Egg Retrieval
- Is Egg Donation Right for You?
- Legal Questions Between Egg Donors and Recipients
- Synchronizing Cycles and Stimulating the Ovaries
- When Your Egg Donor is Part of Your Family
- When Your Egg Donor is Program Recruited
- When Your Egg Donor is Your Friend
- Will Insurance Cover Egg Donation?
- Will This Baby Be Mine?
Synchronizing Cycles and Stimulating the Ovaries
Personal Preparations for Synchronization
When you and your egg donor are preparing for synchronization, you should refrain from any medications other than acetaminophen (i.e., Tylenol) and prenatal vitamins, unless otherwise permitted or advised by your doctor. Caffeine, smoking, consumption of alcohol, rigorous exercise and weight-loss based diet programs should be avoided. Moderate exercise programs can be beneficial, but discuss your activity plan with your doctor for approval.
Synchronizing Cycles
If you are preparing for IVF (in vitro fertilization) using donor eggs, both you and the donor will be enduring weeks of fertility medications to make your little miracle possible. Your endometrium needs to be prepared when the embryo is ready to be transferred, while at the same time the donor will be using fertility medications to put her ovaries into overdrive (you may have heard the term super-ovulation) to ensure a fruitful retrieval process.
You are both likely to be put on a low-dose birth control pill or other hormone therapy in order to get your cycles synchronized. This is essential so that the endometrium will be of a suitable density to support the embryo at the time of transfer. You may even undergo a mock cycle so that your endometrium can be measured via ultrasound after 10-12 days of estrogen. A mock cycle is simply explained, like a “test run”. The doctors may use different protocols (medication cocktails), until your endometrium responds appropriately.
To further ensure that you are prepared for the implantation, your doctor may wish to use a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist, which inhibits the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge. Leuprolide is one such fertility medication. Your doctor may use this medication to keep you from ovulating (halting the surge), so that your uterus will remain ready at the time of the transfer. Leuprolide can be taken every day via subcutaneous injections. There are other GnRH antagonists that may also be used.
It’s likely that you may need to start progesterone a few days before the transfer to help mature your uterine lining for the implantation. You may even be encouraged to continue this routine anywhere from weeks after the procedure up to the duration of the first trimester. This supplementation aids your placenta in maintaining the hormone levels needed to support your pregnancy. Natural progesterone may be administered as a pill, vaginal gel, suppository or as an intramuscular injection.
Stimulating the Ovaries (for donors)
When you are preparing for egg retrieval you must be prepared to give yourself a series of injections. It’s not unusual to first need to inject yourself with Lupron (Leuprolide Acetate), which reduces your production of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone levels. This approach (similar to a mock cycle), enables the doctor to determine a baseline level to help plan the best approach for your retrieval. Depending on your individual response to these injections, you may require more or less medication for greater or fewer days. You will be having blood work and ultrasound tests completed throughout this cycle, in order to assess how you are responding to the medications. A GnRH antagonist is usually administered if a dominant follicle emerges to deter a LH surge, which would cause the eggs to be released prematurely.
Human Chorionic Gonadtropin (HCG, also known as the "Trigger Shot") will be used to simulate your LH surge. It needs to be administered within 36 hours of retrieval. A couple of hours could drastically change the outcome, so often times the patient will be asked to have the HCG shot administered by the clinic performing the procedure to ensure the timing is just right.