Sharing Eggs Completes the Cycle of Giving

With families gathering to celebrate holidays, people who have been unsuccessfully trying to conceive can feel an increased sense of despair -- it's hard to feel joyful when all you really want is a child of your own to bring to the party.

Gratitude can be expressed in many ways, and one way in particular is assisting many couples achieve their dream of biological parenthood -- the donation of viable eggs for use in IVF. Thousands of women, many who are simply acting out of an altruistic desire to help others, donate their own egg cells for the purpose of helping infertile couples conceive.

The use of donor eggs may be required when a woman has poorly functioning or absent ovaries but a functioning uterus, or in cases where a woman wants to avoid the transmission of certain hereditary diseases.

An especially fruitful donor program is referred to as the "shared" or "split" cycle, in which two couples undergo IVF using the eggs from one anonymous donor. The couples enjoy the combined benefits of having viable eggs toward a healthy pregnancy at half the usual cost.

Marge Vogt, Nurse Practitioner and Program Coordinator at the Reproductive Resource Center of Greater Kansas City, states that split cycles are very common in their practice. Through such a program, couples pay only half of the usual expenses for the donor's services. Donor related costs include such things as recruitment and screening expenses, all related monitoring and medical care for the ovulation stimulation and retrieval processes, donor compensation, and insurance.

The receiving couple selects which donor's eggs are used, and are provided with profiles that include a childhood photo of the donor, a listing of non-identifying physical characteristics, psychosocial background (such as hobbies, interests, and talents), and medical information and history on all members of the donor's family of origin.

Vogt says that interested potential donors are thoroughly screened for both physical and mental health issues, and that, in her program, the overwhelming reason indicated for participating as a donor is altruism.

"The egg donors we use are most often women who've had their children, completed their own families, and are looking to help someone else," explains Vogt, who stresses that anonymity of all parties involved is standard in their program. Programs around the country may have varying levels of information disclosure between IVF participants and donors. Other donor screening variances exist, too, such as the allowed age of participants.

"In the screening process, we inquire about their expectations, and they have to be between the ages of 21 and 33 years. We really are recruiting donors who want to do this for altruistic reasons, rather than for a financial need," says Vogt of the Kansas City clinic which has used a shared cycle donor program for eight years.

When asked what potential parents should look for in a donor program, Vogt refers to the two primary sources of ART statistics in the United States -- the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which publishes pregnancy rates for reporting clinics, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), which issues practice guidelines for reproductive practitioners. When asked how consumers might familiarize themselves with ASRM's guidelines that are specific to donor programs, Public Affairs Administrator Sean Tipton states that patients should feel assured that any clinic with a reputable membership in the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) is following ASRM guidelines for the protection of all parties involved in the donor process.

In a shared donor IVF cycle, three women who are unknown to each other are all synchronizing their bodies' reproductive cycles at the same time, through the use of medication. While the donor is preparing to ovulate more than the usual one healthy egg cell, both recipients are working toward building an optimal uterine environment in preparation for embryo transfer. Sperm cells are obtained from the male partners of the recipient couples, and when the time is right, the donor's eggs are harvested and combined with the sperm. Resulting embryos are transferred to the female recipients and the hopeful waiting begins.

Such shared efforts have worked beautifully over the past decade to facilitate the extension of the gift of life for thousands of growing and grateful families.

Learn more about the egg donation process.