Third-party Reproduction or Donor Treatment refers to the use of third-party donated eggs, sperm, or embryos that let infertile individuals or couples get pregnant.
Donor treatment isn’t an easy process since it comes with ethical, social and legal complexities. Even if the process sounds straightforward, it is not.
Coming to a conclusion, starting your family using donor eggs, sperm, or embryo can have profound consequences on everyone involved in the process – donor, receiver and the child born through donor treatment.
Donating sperm, eggs, or embryos is an incredibly selfless gift of life, and for many couples and individuals, it is the only way to attain their dreams of raising a family.
Is Donor Treatment for You?
The use of donated eggs, sperm or embryos is a huge decision, and so you must think wisely, take your time and then make an informed decision.
You shall consider discussing this with your family, close friends and counsellor. A person may need to consider donor conception if:
- Do not produce sperm or eggs of your own
- Produced sperm or eggs are likely to not end up in pregnancy
- You are single and wish to have a baby
- You have a risk of giving a genetic disease
- You are a same-sex couple
Whether you need to appear for Donor Egg, Donor Embryo or Donor Sperm, get the best treatment, guidance and assistance from Dr Manish Banker at Banker IVF.
Here’s everything about the types of donor treatments:
Donor Egg Treatment:
Donor Egg IVF is a treatment wherein the eggs of a healthy young woman, the egg donor, get fertilized with the sperm of the patient’s spouse, and then the embryos are infused into the patient’s uterus. With the donor egg treatment, a woman can experience each phase of pregnancy and then after enjoying motherhood.
Process of Donor Egg Treatment:
- The first and foremost step of an egg donor treatment is selecting an egg donor.
- The selection of an egg donor is the first step in the egg donation procedure.
- The donor will be an unknown person who has been approved after undergoing a line-up of medical and genetic evaluations.
- A stimulation regimen is employed to stimulate the donor’s ovaries and cause them to produce a large number of eggs.
- Next, the eggs are pulled, fertilized, and embryos are cultivated.
- In the meantime, the recipient woman is given medications to prep her uterus for implantation.
- The embryo/s are transferred into the uterus once the endometrium is fully prepared, hormones are normal, and the embryo has cultured to a blastocyst stage.
Who Needs Donor Egg Treatment?
- Women suffering from reproductive issues or ovarian failures
- Women who had poor outcomes in prior IVF cycles
- Women who have a lower number of eggs and quality and are old
- Couples who do not want their children to inherit their hereditary ailments
Donor Sperm Treatment:
Couples in which a male partner cannot release sperm naturally or through using any medical treatment for males may need donated sperm. A couple needs donor sperm to inseminate the woman in the IUI process or fertilize her eggs in the IVF process. You should never choose a new or an unknown sperm donor.
The donor sperm is procured from a respectable and certified sperm bank. These sperm samples are collected from healthy donors whose sperm is tested for viral infections and common gene mutations. The couple receives shared counselling on the repercussions and methodology of such a procedure.
Process of Donor Sperm Treatment:
- Sperm donors need to be anonymous.
- The sperm donor will undergo a detailed medical examination, semen analysis and culture, routine blood tests, blood group, infection screenings, STD testing, and genetic testing.
- After these tests come normal, the donor sperm is taken and stored in a sperm bank.
- The donor is evaluated for infection screening tests (HIV/HBsAg/HCV/VDRL) again after a 6-month quarantine period, so if the test is negative, the sample is released for use.
- The samples are identified using a numerical code provided by the sperm bank.
Who Needs Donor Sperm Treatment?
- The male partner has azoospermia, meaning no sperm count
- The partner has Oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (abnormal sperm)
- Genetic abnormalities
- Poor sperm quality, which led to IVF failures many times
Donor Embryo:
Embryo donation is a procedure that enables embryos created using eggs from an egg donor and sperm from a sperm bank to be donated to other infertile patients to help them conceive. Once the recipient woman’s uterine lining is ready, the embryo created by anonymous donors is transmitted into her uterus.
Process of Donor Embryo Treatment:
- The couple needs to undergo required medical and psychological examinations
- Once a detailed examination of the female partner’s uterine cavity is done, her endometrium is prepared with proper hormones.
- Embryos are created using donor eggs and donor sperm in an IVF/ICSI process that includes the egg and sperm donor selection stages mentioned above.
- The embryos are then implanted in the uterus.
Who Needs Donor Embryo Treatment?
- When both male and female partners have extreme fertility problems
- Because of low-quality eggs and sperm, the couple has faced pregnancy loss in several IVF cycles.
- Genetic issues
