Egg Donation

Egg Donation services offered in Bedford and Fort Worth, TX

Fertility patients often choose donor eggs to build their families. CARE Fertility offers superior-quality egg donation services to help people looking for solutions to infertility. CARE Fertility was the first practice in North Texas to produce a baby using a frozen donor egg and has since seen many more successful pregnancies following egg donation. Call the Bedford or Fort Worth, Texas, office today or book an appointment online to find out how you could benefit from egg donation.

Egg Donation Q & A

What is egg donation?

Egg donation is a fertility treatment for women who are menopausal, have a very low egg reserve, or have had multiple failed IVF (in vitro fertilization) cycles because of an egg-related problem.

In conjunction with a gestational carrier (surrogate mother), egg donation is also an option for male same-sex couples wanting to create a family. Donor eggs can come from a fresh egg donation cycle or a donor egg bank.

How do I prepare for egg donation?

If you’re considering egg donation, you undergo an evaluation at CARE Fertility to ensure that pregnancy wouldn’t cause any significant health problems. The exam also enables your doctor to find and treat any abnormalities that might reduce the likelihood of successful IVF.

In addition to a physical exam and medical history review, you need to undergo some diagnostic testing, which could include:

Cervical cultures for bacteria like chlamydia
Hysterosalpingogram
Saline sonogram
Hysteroscopy

Semen analysis is important to check for male factor infertility.

The CARE Fertility team also performs pretreatment counseling before egg donation. This includes a detailed discussion of what egg donation involves, the risks, and the chances of success. Your doctor also covers the psychological and social aspects of this form of reproduction.

What does egg donation involve?

Donors typically need to be younger than 35, have a normal egg reserve, and have no fertility problems. Before accepting a donor’s eggs, the CARE Fertility team performs a thorough screening of potential donors. Screening protects the recipient, the donor, and the children resulting from egg donation.

The egg donor undergoes diagnostic testing for infectious diseases like hepatitis, syphilis, and HIV. The CARE Fertility team also carries out genetic screening, using detailed family history and blood tests for conditions that affect people of different ethnicities, like cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, Tay-Sachs disease, and thalassemia.

The team also performs a psychological evaluation of the egg donor.

How are donor eggs used?

The key to successful egg donation is to match the development of your uterine lining (endometrium) with your donor’s follicle and egg growth. You need to take estrogen and progesterone before implantation.

If your ovarian function is intact, ovulation might require suppression using a medication like leuprolide before starting on estrogen.

You would usually take estrogen for two weeks and then start taking progesterone either on the day of the donor’s egg retrieval or the day before. The egg undergoes fertilization, and the embryo transfer takes place 2-5 days later.

To learn more about egg donation and how it could help with your infertility problems, call CARE Fertility today or book an appointment online.