5 facts about using donor eggs

1. Some women could be in need of donor eggs

Female infertility is the most common reason for couples to need donor eggs, and it can happen to anyone. Female infertility is often caused by a defect in the woman´s reproductive system, which again can be caused by many different factors, for example:

• Ovulation problems: To become pregnant, you must produce and release an egg once a month, which happens during ovulation. Therefore, if you experience problems with your ovulation because of disorders like PCOS, you may find it difficult to become pregnant.
• Poor egg quality: For you to obtain a pregnancy, it is important to have good quality eggs. If the quality is low, the eggs are more likely to not evolve into the blastocyst stage which is necessary in order to achieve pregnancy.
• Early menopause, or premature ovarian failure: A condition in which menopause begins much earlier than usual.
• Decreased ovarian reserve: It means that a woman's eggs reservoir are depleting and not of good enough quality. This is brought on mostly due to a woman's age but can also happen prematurely in young age.
• Genetic diseases: Diseases that are passed on from mother to child through the mothers eggs can result in the need of donor eggs.
• Failed attempts of IVF: If you experience many failed attempts of vitro fertilization (IVF treatment) when you try to become pregnant, especially if infertility due to the quality of the woman's eggs, you may need to use donor eggs.
• Anticancer therapies: Women who have anti-cancer treatments may no longer be able to generate their own eggs.

Luckily, there are many different types of treatment to help you overcome your fertility problems and fulfil your dream of having a child. If you want to read more about the different types of fertility treatment to help you overcome infertility, we can recommend you follow the link to our page on donor eggs for fertility treatment. 

2. Egg donors are healthy women wanting to help

Cryos egg donors are young, healthy women who have reached out to Cryos with a wish to help others become parents. They may have children themselves and have experienced the joy of parenthood or may have friends or family who have struggled to have children. Either way, they are motivated and well-informed about what it means to be an egg donor.

Before going into more details about these amazing women, one of the most important things to know about egg donors is that they have no parental or legal rights towards the children that are conceived with help from their donations. The donor may or may not have agreed to be contacted by children in the future, which is the difference between an ID Release and Non-ID Release Egg Donor, but she will not learn about pregnancies and children via Cryos.

Cryos egg donors are very different from each other when it comes to ethnicity, appearance, and interests. It is important for us to provide a wide selection of donors, so you have a chance to find an egg donor with similar interests and/or physical appearance as yourself. Despite their differences, all of our egg donors share a sense of solidarity with other women and want to help them achieve their dream of parenthood through egg donation.

At Cryos, we make sure that our donors are thoroughly screened before they become available in our free egg donor search. It is important for us to make sure that the donors are both physically and mentally healthy before donating, to minimize the risk of passing on any diseases. Follow the link to read more about the screening process for egg donors.

If you want help finding the right donor, then follow the link to our guide on choosing an egg donor. 

3. Donor-conceived children are doing just fine

One of main concerns about donor eggs are the wellbeing of the donor-conceived children. People are often concerned about how the children will do without knowing their genetic origin, but the concerns are unfounded. Studies show that donor-conceived people are generally doing well, and according to Susan Golombok, Professor of Family Research, the upbringing is more important than the genetics.

“Sometimes parents worry about this; that the children might not love them as much, or they might be upset when they find out how they were conceived. Our research has shown the opposite. The earlier parents start talking to their children, the better. We found that parents who were able to talk openly with their children about their origins when they were young had better relationships with them by the teenage years.”

According to Susan Golombok, talking openly about how the child came to be from an early age will help the children. Her studies show that those who were open with their children in their preschool years found that, rather than being distressed, their children were either not very interested in their origins, or they were curious to know more.

Telling your children that they are donor-conceived has not always been the general recommendation. This means that earlier generations of donor-conceived persons have often found out late in life and sometimes by coincidence. In our blog post about Katie who was egg donor-conceived, you can read a personal story on finding out about being donor-conceived as an adult.

If you would like to learn more personal stories and get in contact with other people who is or has been in your situation, we recommend that you follow the link to our Facebook group Family Dreams, where likeminded parents to donor-conceived children can share the ups and downs in their life.

4. Frozen donor eggs give you more flexibility

It is possible to receive fertility treatment with both fresh and frozen donor eggs. At Cryos, you can order frozen donor eggs, which has several advantages. One of the advantages is the availability. The frozen donor eggs are already available for fertility treatment when you need them. This means that you do not have to wait for the eggs to be retrieved and you can just order the eggs with delivery to match your cycle and treatment. This makes the process much easier and more efficient than a process with fresh donor eggs. Research shows that success rates of frozen donor eggs are similar to that of fresh donor eggs.

If you want to learn more about whether to choose fresh or frozen donor eggs, follow the link to our page on the subject.

5. You might need to go abroad

If you wish to receive fertility treatment with donor eggs, there may be legislative restrictions that may force you to travel to another country to fulfil your dream of a child. In some countries, it is not allowed to receive fertility treatment with donor eggs and in others a certain profile may not be allowed, which will affect the selection of egg donors.

If you have any questions regarding fertility treatment with donor eggs, we recommend you contact our Customer Care Team, that can help you on your journey towards parenthood.