Dipping my toes in, Donor Eggs

[No Display]

I recently had my second failed IVF cycle. My doctor thinks I have poor egg quality along with DOR. I started looking into donors. I'm leaning toward frozen eggs over a fresh donor cycle. I am interested in hearing anyone's input on why and how they chose their donors. What donor program they used, and any other info you are willing to share. I am not ready to chime in on check ins but I'll be lurking.

[dream2be3]

Hi No Display - sorry to hear about the failed cycle.

I used frozen donor eggs. I preferred frozen because I didn't want to have to rely on a complete stranger making their appointments, taking meds, etc. I also didn't want the stress (or have the patience) to sync my cycle with theirs. Frozen also had a great success rate. I didn't really research egg banks other then the one my RE suggested as that's who they work with. They had a great success rate and a strict screening process so I was comfortable sticking with them. They don't do cost sharing or anything like that. You get 6-8 eggs and are guaranteed at least 1 high quality egg. The cost for us, including the actual transfer with the RE cost the same as an IVF cycle. We used Fa.irf.ax Egg Bank.

Please feel free to tag or message me if you have any questions.

[No Display]

dream2be3 thank you. It is great to hear you had a good experience with a frozen egg donation. Did you guys have any left to freeze?
I am connected with don.or eg.g b.ank USA and they do similar guarantees. I am very interested in their assured program. 6 batch cycles and includes all FET's and 100% money back if you don't take home a baby. It costs just over what two cycles would. I think I need the insurance. Part of me doesn't believe I'll ever have a pregnancy. So if I'm heart broken at the end I just want to make sure we aren't completely poor on top of it. If it happens to work the first time, well at least we will have our LO and can pay it off and be done.
I have been looking over donors, what were the top requirements you had? I have a few that I am really hoping for, eye color and freckles, but I'd also really want an O- or A- blood type since H and I are both negative, and I'd prefer to keep the blood type to match one of us incase of medical needs at some point for them down the road.

[dream2be3]

No Display we ended up with 2 to freeze. We got a total of 8 eggs. We were surprised that half made it through the unthaw and made it to day 5 as it wasn't looking good at day 3.

My criteria was pretty much geared around family medical/mental history. I preferred someone who'd had a successful pregnancy of their own. That may seem odd but it just made me feel more confident in the quality of their eggs. The only physical trait I looked at was height.

My DH and I didn't discuss criteria prior to looking at donors. We each looked separately, picked our top 3 and compared. He was primarily looking at physical traits and ethnicity. We didn't agree on any! We got down to 2 that neither of us were super excited about. Luckily a couple days later several new donors became avail and there was one that met all my requirements and DH's. We scooped her up right away.

My advice is when you decide on an egg bank, ask them how often they list new donors and if you're able to "hold" a donor for any length of time.

We were able to hold our donor for 10 days. It allowed us a little time to sit with our decision and also to get our money in order. During that time I did not continue looking at donors. I knew if we didn't take our chosen donor I would regret it and be sad. She was perfect for us and met every piece of criteria of mine and DH.

[RN1175]

******grad warning LC mentioned******

Hi No Display. I'm sorry about the failed cycle.

We did a fresh cycle with an anonymous donor who we were matched with by a donor nurse at our clinic. We were in a wait list for four months before we were matched. The donors at our clinic are screened very well. Our Dr told us that out of 200 people that are screened they accept two.
We had to synchronize mine and the donors cycles and this was done by taking BCP.
My nurse kept us informed of her progress during stimming and I did my FET prep during that time. We ended up with 11R 10M 7F.
We ended up with 4 blasts. First transfer was a cp. first FET we transferred two and had a vanishing twin at 9 weeks. We had seen two heartbeats at the first ultrasound. Baby B ended up being just fine and is now our 8 week old sweet little boy!
This type of IVF is pretty costly when you have your own donor and you do a fresh cycle.
But IMO, worth every penny. I wouldn't change anything about the way our journey went. Please let me know if I can answer anymore questions!

[No Display]

dream2be3, That is awesome you guys found one that met all criteria and she came up at the right time. That is good advice to ask how often they are updated, I hadn't thought about that. I keep changing some of my requirements around to see more options and I have been surprised at how many I would actually be really happy using. I am brown hair, green eyed, but I have blonde, blue eyes that run in my family (my sisters) so I am really open to lots or women. Also my H is very dark featured, except hazel eyes, so I want to probably go on the lighter side to balance out that. The way this clinic works though is you only get a batch of between 5 and 8 eggs in a lot, although I did find one donor I like with 10.
I am actually nervous to open up the donor door with MH. I want him to look and find ones he likes, hopefully we will have a few that over lap. I just think the money part is going to be very scary for him, and also giving up having my genetic make up mixed with his.

RN1175, Thank you! I am so glad it worked out for you guys! My biggest concerns with a fresh transfer are all the things that can go wrong or come up... And the cost is just under what we would be paying for the money back program. I do like the idea of someone else matching you with a donor though. Takes a bit of the stress off you.

[dream2be3]

I wish you guys the best and hope it all works out. Feel free to reach out if you have any more questions!

[trytobearunner34]

We chose frozen over fresh as there was a particular time window that worked best for us (I am a principal and July is the least stressful month of the year for me and allows the most flexibility at work) and I felt more confident that we could time things better with frozen. Additionally, we did not want to travel and did not necessarily want to have a donor who was local (no logical reason).

We looked at e.gg.bank.ofamerica & NW.cryo.bank and ended up going with the latter because of the donor we selected.

*****PAIF Warning****
We received a lot of 6 eggs from a "proven" donor (i.e. there had been at least one previous pregnancy). 2 of these eggs did not survive thaw. In addition to donor egg we also did ICSI and one of the remaining eggs disintegrated immediately. Two made it to blast (none left to freeze) and were transferred resulting in my 9 week pregnancy with a singleton.

I share all this because the one thing we didn't realized with frozen was the potential for loss at thaw and ICSI. We had barely left the gate and were down by 50%.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[No Display]

trytobearunner34 thank you. My doctor did tell us using frozen would most likely only result in one or two good embryos with nothing to save after. He told us we would have a better chance getting something to freeze if we did fresh. I'm glad it resulted in a pregnancy for you, congratulations!!

[4furrypaws]

We have narrowed down to one local clinic and the two in CR for DE. If we go with the local clinic we would do frozen because fresh is 7+ month wait. If we go to the one clinic in CR we will do fresh and frozen at the other.

We are going to make our final decision this week as to where we will cycle. Our IF insurance coverage is maxed so we are all OOP at this point. The money factor is a biggie to me. We have enough saved to do one locally or 2-3 in CR if needed.

Please PM me if you want any info on the CR clinics!

Xo

[No Display]

RN1175, Quick question, do you still have one embryo left for a later transfer date? I am trying to feel out the odds of having extra embryos left over for future use with a fresh cycle. I know with a frozen egg donation it is less likely to have embryos for later use. I would love more than one child in my future and I am still very young, so I am just now looking toward the future and what might be the best option with that in mind.