A look at IVF with donor eggs

For those women who are combatting advanced maternal age, there’s often a very difficult decision that must be made. Should you try to conceive with your own eggs or should you pursue treatment with IVF using donor eggs? While autologous (using your own eggs) IVF offers superb pregnancy rates in younger women, older women and women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) experience a significantly lower chance for success. These are the patients who may well be ideal candidates for IVF with donor eggs.  Our San Antonio IVF center team is ready to help you decide if IVF with donor eggs is right for you.

IVF with your own eggs

During the stimulation part of an IVF cycle, your body makes multiple eggs at one time to increase the likelihood of conceiving and having a healthy baby. Pregnancy and delivery rates with IVF can be as high as 50-60% per embryo transfer, especially for women under the age of 37. IVF with your own eggs at our San Antonio IVF center may be an excellent choice when your ovaries contain many eggs.

IVF with donor eggs

If you choose to pursue IVF with donor eggs at our San Antonio IVF center, your egg donor (typically a woman under age 30) will undergo the same ovarian stimulation as someone going through IVF with their own eggs. Once the eggs are retrieved from the donor, they are fertilized with sperm from the intended father, and the resulting embryo is transferred into the intended mother. This results in very high pregnancy rates (typically 50-70% per embryo transferred) that are independent of the age of the intended parent, since the likelihood of pregnancy is related to the age of the egg.

IVF with donor eggs is a good option for women who have DOR as well as for women who have a genetic disorder that they do not want to pass on to their offspring.  It is also an excellent choice for couples in whom other fertility treatments have been tried without success.

When comparing egg donation and IVF using your own eggs, our San Antonio fertility doctors will review your history and discuss your chance for success with each method. Every patient is unique, and our San Antonio IVF center will take all of your medical history and reproductive goals into consideration when making treatment recommendations. If you’re considering egg donation or IVF, please contact us and make an appointment with one of our fertility specialists to get you on the path to pregnancy.