For the Egg Recipient (Women Who Desire to Receive Donated Eggs)

Overview

Advanced Fertility Care is pleased to offer its services to patients in the Greater Phoenix/Scottsdale/South East Valley area and beyond. We are in the process of constantly adding to our own pool of donors. Our donor pool is designed to represent many ethnic groups and consist of healthy young women ages 18-30 years of age. We are constantly advertising and recruiting eligible young women who wish to donate their eggs in order to provide hope to those women who would otherwise not be able to conceive.

Advanced Fertility Care offers both dedicated and shared donor cycles. A shared cycle allows two anonymous couples to share the eggs of a single donor (if certain criteria are met), thus enabling the couple to reduce their costs while maintaining the same statistical chance of a pregnancy for that cycle. In order to be eligible to participate in the Donor Egg IVF program at Advanced Fertility Care, the female recipient must start treatment prior to age 49 and must be able to complete all treatment cycle(s) prior to turning age 50 years old.

Process

First Step

The couple must schedule an initial consultation with Dr. Zoneraich. At that meeting, Dr. Zoneraich will determine what elements of testing will be required and review the entire process. Following that meeting, an additional meeting with our Donor Coordinator will be scheduled (sometimes at the same visit) in order to provide further details about the program, and coordinate the screening tests, donor selection, and stimulation process.

Initial Screening Tests

Initial screening for the recipient involves a uterine evaluation, blood testing, cultures, and pap smear. Routine mammograms are required for women over age 40 and those over 45 yrs are required to have an EKG, Chest X-ray, and fasting metabolic panel. A psychological evaluation of each couple, performed by one of our psychologists or social workers, will be required for all recipient couples. Once initial screening is complete, testing of the uterine response to hormone will be accomplished through a prep (mock) cycle. This will be performed using an estrogen preparation and ultrasound monitoring. Only in rare circumstances will endometrial sampling be performed.

Stimulation and Coordination of Cycles

Once the initial screening and donor selection process is completed, coordinated synchronization of the recipient and donor cycles is planned through the use of oral contraceptive pills and Lupron. The remainder of the stimulation protocol will be managed on an individual basis as determined by Dr. Zoneraich.

On the day of egg retrieval, the eggs will be fertilized using primarily the ICSI procedure. Progesterone injections will also start in order to maintain the endometrial thickness. Our embryologists will notify the couples of fertilization and embryo development on a daily basis. The majority of patients will then undergo a Day 5 blastocyst transfer into the uterine cavity. The moment of truth comes 10 to 12 days after the transfer when we perform the pregnancy test.