Embryo donation or embryo donation is an assisted reproductive treatment in which frozen donated embryos are transferred into a woman’s uterus. These embryos come from couples or women who have successfully undergone in vitro fertilization treatment and have decided to donate the surplus embryos.
Only healthy couples, with no known metabolic, genetic or infectious diseases, and where the woman is under 36 years of age at the time of in vitro fertilization can donate their embryos.
Couples or women who request embryo donation treatment usually have previously undergone unsuccessful reproductive treatment. Most of these couples have been diagnosed as producing embryos of poor morphological or genetic quality, or have a history of implantation failure or repeat miscarriages with their own embryos. The options available to these couples are:
- Perform IVF cycles with donor eggs and sperm.
- Embryo donation treatments.
According to specialists in Assisted Reproduction, both treatments have a very high probability of pregnancy and choosing between one or the other is a personal decision.
Embryo donation treatment
The embryo donation treatment can be very simple since it can be performed in a spontaneous ovulatory cycle. That is to say, 1 or 2 ultrasounds are performed to monitor ovarian function, and when the woman has a pre-ovulatory follicle, ovulation is provoked at a specific time and date. Then the embryos are thawed at the appropriate time and day for their transfer to the uterus.
After ovulation, it is common to give a progesterone treatment to support implantation and 10 days after the transfer we will know if there is pregnancy or not.
Differences between IVF with donor eggs and sperm and embryo donation
IVF with donor eggs and sperm allows the physical characteristics of both donors to be chosen so that they resemble the recipients as closely as possible. In these cases the probability of pregnancy is around 60% in the first attempt and 90% in the second.
In embryo donation, on the other hand, it is not possible to choose the physical characteristics of the donor, since the embryos already exist. Even so, an attempt is made to look for embryos that match the donor’s race, height and blood group with the recipient couple. In this case the probability of pregnancy is around 40% in the first attempts and 90% after 4-5 attempts.