Ghost: Questions about egg donation

[Brooklyngirl]

Hi Ghost,

I am leaning very seriously toward egg donation and want to ask the right questions when I speak to the RE about the donor and her protocol.

I was planning to ask about MIS, AFC, FSH, TSH, and her medical history. Is there anything else blood-test and otherwise I should ask?

Anything I should ask about the protocol for the donor or for me? Should I look for a specific protocol?

Many thanks!

[Ghost]

Hi Ghost,

I am leaning very seriously toward egg donation and want to ask the right questions when I speak to the RE about the donor and her protocol.

I was planning to ask about MIS, AFC, FSH, TSH, and her medical history. Is there anything else blood-test and otherwise I should ask?

Anything I should ask about the protocol for the donor or for me? Should I look for a specific protocol?

Many thanks!

She should have an ample ovarian reserve, as evidenced in her antral follicle count, AMH (a.k.a. MIS) and FSH. They MUST screen her for diseases, as required by the FDA. She might have a history of success in donor cycles. Ask about any history of failures, too.

If I was you, I would insist on an antagonist protocol with the option of a Lupron trigger if the response is very high. That way there is no need to cancel for OHSS risk.

It seems there are clinics with 50% success in donor cycles and those with 75%. The latter seem to be blast transfer clinics. Look for those.

[to_have_fun08]

Brooklyn - I would ask if she had past miscarriages and also past pregnancies. Also like Ghost said if she has donated before information on all her prior cycles and if they ended up in positives or negatives. If she has done past cycles, try and find out how many eggs were retrieved. one of my big factors was age, i wanted to make sure the donor was under 30.

Good Luck!!

[Brooklyngirl]

Thanks for the advice. I will ask these questions during the presentation.

She is a new donor (never been pregnant) and 22. Do you think I should risk a new donor or look for one that has been successful?

Many thanks!

[to_have_fun08]

Brooklyngirl - With all that i have gone through and paying $35,000 for a donor cycle, I wasn't willing to go with a donor that wasn't proven. I didn't want to take the risk of her screwing up the meds or not responding at all or too well. If I had a multiple cycle option then i might have thought about going with a new donor. This was my only shot so i wanted the least amount of rusk. If you do choose a new donor, i would ask your clinic to make sure the do lots of monitoring and that you can cancel if the cycle doesn't look like it is going well.

[Brooklyngirl]

Thanks for the advice. The clinic requires that every donor goes to the clinic to receive the meds. They watch their donors like hawks!

My concern is about the number of eggs she produces. I will post her numbers when I receive them.

Thanks!

[to_have_fun08]

brooklyngirl - that is awesome that your clinic monitor so well. I just had to have faith that my donor was doing what she was supposed to do. Keep us posted.

[DALLAS]

Yes, please post your numbers as soon as you know. We are using a Donor also. We had to decide btwn the 2 ladies we liked, one was a proven....but not avail until mid July, the other avail right away, 1st time donor. We ended up going with our 2nd choice so that we could start ASAP. We were really concerned for the number of eggs she may produce. She is a 20yr old healthy young lady. A thought that has eased my mind is.... they all had to be given their first chance to donate, someone had to take a risk with all of them, she is just waiting for her chance too. I havent had a 2nd uneasy thought about her since.

ghost- Is it likely that the more a female donates that the number of eggs she produces each time will decrease. One of the proven donors at our clinic had donated several times and her donation numbers were.. 16, 12, 9, and due to try again. This was a reason we did not pick this donor, we were afraid by our turn the numbers would be much lower.

[katieb1231]

Brooklyngirl - I think the DE gals need to be under supervision and if they are they seem to do OK, our donor produced 17 eggs of which 14 were mature, then 13 fertilized and 8 made it to day 5, we transferred 2 the first time which gave us a BFP only to MC a few weeks later, did a FET cycle this time and transferred 2 and we are currently in some Beta troubles....so we are praying all is OK....our donor was 28 and had three little boys of her own already. Sounds like your clinic watches them very closely and that is a REALLY good sign....much good luck to you I will be keeping up with your story & praying that you get your BFP soon!!!!

[Ghost]

ghost- Is it likely that the more a female donates that the number of eggs she produces each time will decrease. One of the proven donors at our clinic had donated several times and her donation numbers were.. 16, 12, 9, and due to try again. This was a reason we did not pick this donor, we were afraid by our turn the numbers would be much lower.

Generally, no, or not much. An IVF cycle (stimulation, retrieval) uses a tiny fraction of the thousands of eggs a typical woman has. I've also seen them increase over 4 consecutive cycles.

Of course, if the cycles were years apart or if the clinic stimmed them less each time, then yes, I'd expect a decline in collected oocytes in those cases.