Diagnosis Doesn’t Spell Disaster – Counter Infertility with Frozen Donor Eggs
Receiving a negative diagnosis from your fertility doctor can feel as though you’ve hit another huge stumbling block in your ambition for the perfect family. You’ve invested time, money, love, and emotion into this process, only for it to backfire yet again.
Even though you’re struggling to conceive, perhaps even trying traditional IVF along the way, there is still a chance with frozen egg donation through Donor Egg Bank USA – a California Cryobank Company. This process could counter your infertility, allowing you to create your dream family.
Infertility Issues Related to Eggs
According to statistics, 11% of couples at reproductive age in the U.S. struggle with conceiving or sustaining their pregnancy. Female fertility problems account for approximately a third of these cases.
Furthermore, as a woman ages, her fertility reduces slowly, starting as early as her 20s. In her 30s, a woman has a 20% chance of conceiving each month; when she hits 40, this number dramatically reduces to 5%.
Discovering a problem with your eggs is devastating, and can have a huge emotional impact on both yourself and your partner. Surrogacy or adoption may be recommended to you, but wanting to carry your own baby, these options might not provide the answer you’re looking for. After all, what can replace that feeling of having your baby grow inside you? Or being able to breastfeed her when she arrives?
These treasured experiences you’ve dreamed of can still be made a reality through donor egg.
Choosing a Donor
You have two options with donor egg IVF: using an agency to choose an anonymous donor or selecting a donor you know. People often assume that couples will opt for someone familiar, yet most couples choose to work with an agency. This removes many of the potential complications (e.g. awkward family dynamics) that can come with using a donor you know.
When selecting a donor through an egg bank, you’re provided with a list of eligible candidates who have been through all of the appropriate screening. These extensive tests include physical and psychological examinations, drug usage screenings, family history questionnaires, and much more.
Your choice depends on your own unique criteria, such as whether or not you want to find a donor who has similar physical traits to you. There aren’t any limits to the way you refine your search, which is why it can take several months to find the perfect donor.
The Process of IVF with Frozen Donor Eggs
As the eggs from the donor are already collected and ready for fertilization, frozen donor egg IVF cycles are far less complicated, less time-consuming, and less expensive than fresh donor egg.
The process starts with a full medical evaluation that establishes any risk factors. You may then be offered a “mock cycle” or “prep cycle,” which is a course of hormonal therapy used by your doctor to determine the amount of hormones, and duration needed, to create the desired endometrial thickening effects and optimum blood levels for successful implantation.
Even if you do not take part in this cycle, you must go through an endometrial lining development stage. By taking a combination of estrogen followed by progesterone, this helps prepare the uterus for implantation of the embryo.
Once complete, the thawed frozen donor eggs are fertilized with your partner’s sperm (or donor sperm, if you wish). The embryos created from this phase are placed into incubation, and 1-2 are typically implanted after three to five days.
Two weeks after your implantation, you’ll take a blood pregnancy test which measures for hCG (the pregnancy hormone). Two of these tests, along with an ultrasound that detects your baby’s heartbeat, will confirm the pregnancy. You’ll then be referred to your GYN/OB for prenatal care.
Considering Your Options
Throughout this entire process – and with all the considerations you must make – you’re going to experience a rollercoaster of emotions. However, from anger to sadness and elation to grief, all of these emotions are completely normal.
At first, it’s often difficult to accept that using donor egg means there is no genetic link between you and your baby. However, after suffering numerous setbacks and challenges, the opportunity to carry your own baby through donor egg can provide that all-important light at the end of the tunnel.
Watching your tummy grow as your unborn child develops is a wonderful feeling, as is nurturing your child as he grows in the outside world. Donor egg can help create your happily ever after.
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