Treatment with donor embryos
Treatment with donor embryos
Donor embryo treatment involves three people: the egg donor, the sperm donor and the embryo recipient. Our doctors meet our donors personally, so that the matching is as individual as possible. If you do not come to AVA-Peter for an Initial Consultation, we use your photographs and the information you provide to ensure a suitable match.
Parameters for treatment using donor embryos
At AVA-Peter, we accept egg recipients up to the age of 50 in our embryo donation programme. Anonymous embryo donation and egg and sperm donation is allowed under Russian law, and there is no waiting list for people seeking donor eggs and sperm.
All the egg donors in the AVA-Peter databank are aged under 30 and have at least one child of their own. Their average age is just 26. Our sperm donors are healthy, sporty men aged between 25 and 40 who also have at least one child. Once we have matched you to a pair of suitable donors and you have approved the match, your donor embryo treatment can begin.
Synchronising the menstrual cycles
If you are using fresh embryos, you and the egg donor need to be at the start of your menstrual cycles in order to start the treatment. So the first step is to synchronise the two menstrual cycles. Even if you no longer have a menstrual cycle, or do not have a regular menstrual cycle, we can induce one to start at the right time. This is done by prescribing birth control tablets (combined oral contraception tablets) to the donor and the recipient according to the agreed schedule. Sometime recipients need several ‘probe’ cycles to encourage the uterine lining to grow before starting the Embryo Transfer cycle. The tablets are finished on the same date by both the donor and the recipient, leading to a ‘withdrawal bleed’ (menstruation) in both women. Both of you are now ready to start your treatment.
If you are using frozen embryos, synchronisation is not necessary, but it is advisable to use birth control tablets in order to plan the transfer on the best day, in advance.
The egg donor’s treatment
Once the egg donor's period begins, she has an ultrasound examination (a scan of the uterus) to make sure the ovaries are inactive and the uterine lining is thin. Your egg donor then takes medication to stimulate her ovaries to produce eggs. After a few days, she has another scan to suppress her own hormonal activity and prevent the premature release of egg cells. One or two more scans will be performed during the course of the treatment to monitor the growth of the follicles in her ovaries and the effect of the hormone dosage. After about 10 days, she takes an additional hormone to make the eggs ready for collection. Egg collection is performed by aspirating the eggs from the follicles using a needle introduced into the ovary via the vagina. The process is carried out under general anaesthetic to make it painless for the donor. If you have chosen a ‘personal donor’, you will receive all the eggs that are collected. These will be fertilised with the sperm of your ‘personal sperm donor’ to create embryos that will only be used for your own treatment. If your donor is a ‘clinic donor’, her eggs will be fertilised with the sperm of a ‘clinic sperm donor’ to create embryos that can be used to treat more than one recipient. You will receive one or two high-quality embryos, according to your preference, and the other embryos will become part of our embryo bank. After egg collection, your donor rests for a while to allow the effects of the anaesthetic to wear off, and takes it easy for the rest of the day. Her task is now over, and her next period will arrive in about 10 days’ time.
The embryo recipient’s treatment
Embryo recipients (women who need donor eggs and sperm to get pregnant) may or may not still have a menstrual cycle. Whether or not you do, you will usually be asked to take birth control pills for a certain number of days and then stop. This should result in a ‘withdrawal bleed’ or period. One week before taking the last tablet, you may have one single injection of a ‘down-regulating’ drug. Sometimes more than one ‘probe cycle’ is required to ensure that your uterine lining grows well in response to the medication. Your AVA-Peter doctor will write this into your individual treatment plan. In most cases, you will then have a scan to check that the lining of your womb is thin and that there are no cysts before starting the treatment cycle. (Donor embryos are of course very precious, and your AVA-Peter doctor will want to ensure your uterus is in the best possible state to receive them.) This involves taking oestrogen tablets, patches and/or cream to build up your womb lining again. Five days before the planned date for Embryo Transfer, you start taking progesterone in addition to oestrogen. This is normally in the form of vaginal progesterone pessaries or cream.
Fertilisation and embryo transfer
The fresh donor eggs collected are fertilised with the sperm of your sperm donor. They are grown in our laboratory for three or (more usually) five days. During this time, they continue to divide and develop. At five days old, embryos are known as blastocysts. By this stage, our expert embryologists can determine which are the most promising and most viable embryos. On the day of Embryo Transfer, one or two of the best embryos are transferred through the cervical canal into the egg recipient’s uterus using a thin, soft plastic catheter. This procedure is usually quick and painless. If using frozen embryos from our embryo bank, these are defrosted on the day of the transfer according to the schedule in your personal treatment plan.
We do not replace more than two embryos in any cycle in order to minimise the risk of multiple pregnancy. If you have chosen a ‘personal donor’, the rest of the embryos can be frozen if they are of sufficient quality. They now belong to you and can be used for future pregnancies, or for further attempts if necessary.
After the Embryo Transfer, you continue taking oestrogen and progesterone medication for two weeks and then take a pregnancy test. This can be a blood test or a urine test. If the test is positive, you should have a scan to confirm the pregnancy two weeks later. If a ‘foetal pole’ is seen on the scan (this looks like a grain of rice within the foetal sac), this provides clinical confirmation of your pregnancy. Both medications should be continued until the 12 weeks of pregnancy and progesterone – until 20 weeks..
If your pregnancy test is negative, it is sadly very unlikely that you are pregnant. Some patients of course prefer to continue their medication and take another test a few days later. If you have another negative result, the hormone medication can be discontinued. Please note that blood tests are more sensitive than urine tests, and that a blood test may reveal the presence of a small amount of the HCG ‘pregnancy’ hormone, indicating that the embryo/s did in fact implant in your uterus before sadly not developing further. This information may be of benefit in helping you to decide whether to have another attempt at embryo donation.
Please inform us of your pregnancy test result as soon as you are able to. If you are pregnant, we would like to be kept informed of your progress and we support you with medical recommendation until 12 weeks per e-mail. And if this time things have not worked out as you would have hoped, we will do our best to offer you the help and advice you need.
As with all pregnancies, assisted pregnancies involve a small risk of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, foetal development defects, and later complications during pregnancy and delivery. The risk of miscarriage after embryo donation at AVA-Peter is no higher than in other IVF pregnancies due to the extra medication we provide to stop bleeding in the first trimester.
Interested in embryo donation at AVA-Peter?
Please first fill in our questionnaire This will be assessed by one of our experienced doctors, who will then get in touch with you using your preferred contact method.
If you have any questions, an English-speaking receptionist is available to take your call on 007 812 600 7812 between 07:00-14:00 Central European time (06.00-13.00 UK time). You can also reach us by e-mail at info@clinic.avapeter.com
We look forward to hearing from you!
Very kind regards,
Your AVA-Peter team
