The IVF method of egg donation is a legal procedure in Greece that has been applied for years as it enables women with ovarian dysfunction and genetic material of poor quality, to become biological mothers. Thanks to the young quality of genetic material that is utilised, oocyte (egg) donation in these cases, shoots up the success rates and positive pregnancy tests up to 75-80%, which are normally below 3-5%. This makes the egg donation method very promising for women who have been exhausted by cycles of conventional IVF without success.
Egg donation therefore allows women with very poor chances of success with their own genetic material, to eventually experience the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth without being disappointed with repeated futile attempts.
Egg donation is nothing more than the donation of a single cell for each embryo that we’ ll create. Unlike organ transplants where we need to receive a whole organ, i.e. millions of cells to save a life, in egg donation we receive the product of the ovarian stimulation of a donor to create a life. This life is gestated in the womb of the recipient and biological mother that becomes the recipient of this “gift”. And the infant, after its intrauterine life, has no anxiety about its “origin” since all its intrauterine stimuli find replenishment in the arms of its biological mother (egg recipient). When a woman doubts motherhood and cannot accept within herself the donation of an egg cell, I often remind her that if she did not decide to give life to this donor cell and of course the universe did not take care of it, this life would have never existed. So it is the woman’s or the couple’s decision, and only in combination with the sperm of the spouse or a sperm donor, this cell will end up creating an embryo and a new life. Therefore, the eggs of a donor without this decision would not give life and they would remain nothing but cells and accordingly, the embryos created by egg donation, from day one, have a full name and legal parents that no one can question.
Another common question that I am asked daily is “How many eggs do we get from the donor?” and the answer is as many as the donor chosen for my patient will produce during their stimulation. The minimum required limit that I have personally set in the centers I am working with, is 10 mature eggs to start the procedure, on the day of fertilisation.
