In our society it is common to delay the age of having children, which reduces the chances of getting pregnant. For this reason, some techniques, as the egg donation, are a great opportunity for those women afflicted with an ovarian factor to fulfil their dearest dream.
Usually known as egg donation, the right way to name this technique is "donated eggs reception", because the process of a donor giving her eggs is also called "egg donation". This is the best solution to the couples suffering from an ovarian factor.
The woman's uterus must be able to have a pregnancy.
All our donors are young, university students who should pass each of our rigorous tests and those required by law. Then the donor has to come to our centre in order to receive correctly the best medication, recombinant hormones (not from a urinary origin).
We can search your suitable donor, since we consider your physical features (such as race, weight, height, eye and hair colour, etc.), and the genetic compatibility. In order to reduce the risks of genetic disorders, we undergo the genetic test Compatibility.
Steps of the donated egg reception
a) Uterine preparation
Patches and tables are used to administer the treatment. After 2 weeks, we perform an ultrasound exam of the endometrium, the uterus inner part, to confirm it is in optimum conditions. The treatment will go on until after the transfer, when the pregnancy test is done.
b) Getting the donor's eggs
After the testing and selection of healthy, fertile donors, only 20% of them are accepted. They will start an ovarian stimulation treatment in our centre, where they will come to receive the treatment and to be tested.
The following step is the egg extraction.
c) Donor's sperm preparation and fertilisation
The healthy sperm will be separated from the remains. If IVF technique is applied, the sperm is placed with the eggs in a cell-culture dish. As regards ICSI technique, a spermatozoon is inserted inside the mature egg. Since each egg is fertilised individually, non-viable embryos are avoided. In some cases, we recommend IMSI procedure, besides ICSI one.
IMSI involves a major, accurate sperm selection for egg fertilisation, because we use a more powerful microscope (with 16.000 magnifications facing the 400 magnifications of ICSI). It allows us to observe if there are any vacuoles inside the spermatozoon nucleus, which are related to DNA abnormalities.
*IMSI technique is only available for the moment at Cefer Barcelona.
e) Oocyte observation
After 16-20 hours, we undergo one more test through the microscope. If there are two circles (pronucleus), it means the oocyte is fertilised. We will inform you as soon as we know it!
f) Embryo monitoring
Every day Cefer embryologists take out the cell-culture dishes with the embryos and check their development one by one. This monitoring gives us some valuable information about which embryos are more likely to be successful.
We have a highly advanced system of embryo incubator, EmbryoScope, with a new image acquisition system. This allows the embryo's development to be traced first hand without taking it out the incubator, so we can collect more information for an early detection of embryo morphological abnormalities, which cannot be identified through traditional methods. Moreover, EmbryoScope improves the selection criteria of the highest potential embryos for pregnancy.
Thanks to the excellent conditions (constant temperature, humidity and environment) within EmbryoScope, the embryo incubation is more stable, which increases embryo viability. With respect to pregnancy, miscarriage rates will be reduced by half.
*EmbryoScope is only available for the moment at Cefer Barcelona.
g) Embryo transfer to the uterusEmbryo transfer is painless, which means that sedation is not required. Ultrasound guidance will be used in order to ensure the correct placement of the embryos.
Ask our experts for further information about IVF technique.
Avoid risks for your baby
Recent scientific studies have shown that the risk of genetic disorder is higher than previously thought, even when there are not prior cases in the family history.
The new genetic tests have transformed the assisted reproduction field. They make possible now to research on many diseases at the same cost that we have been paying before for just studying one.
With a single DNA test from a blood sample, the Cefer Reproductive Institute reduces the risk of having a child afflicted with one of the 310 genetic disorders.
