If someone will accept me as a egg doner does it matter my age?

[jus246]

I am 37 and need to have IVF due to being steralised and partner vasectomy. I am trying desperatly to find a clinic or someone to accept me as their egg doner so the IVF will be reduced in cost as at the moment it is going to cost us £6000+ and we just dont have it. I have been told by my local clinic that i am an ideal candidate for egg share as i already have children but it is my age that they wont accept. Does anyone need a doner or know of a clinic that allows over 37? Ive looked everywhere.

[Caitni]

Hi Jus246

I see you've been posting on a lot of threads so thought I'd try to help. On the HFEA website it says a donor can only be over 35 in exceptional circumstances (see here).

The cut off of 35 is because the success rates start to decline from that point on, regardless of previous children. Having previous children is good but doesn't necessarily indicate how you'll respond to the ovary stimulating drugs that are an essential part of IVF (and to egg share most clinics would want you to produce at least 10 eggs, so you can split them 50/50 with your recipient).

I don't know what constitutes "exceptional circumstances" for the HFEA - that depends on individual clinics - but I'm guessing that being a known donor, ie knowing the recipient before donating, could be one of them. It may be worth asking the HFEA directly for clarification on what they mean.

There aren't a huge amount of women on here with experience of egg sharing so you could try Fertility Friends which has whole sections of its message board about both egg sharing and donating. Perhaps you may have more luck posting there?

Best of luck with whatever happens next.

[jus246]

Thanks for your help, i have posted on a lot of threads just trying to find out where i go from here, keep getting to a brick wall! but still ill keep looking ans ill try fertility friends. Thanksxx

[jus246]

Thanks i didnt really understand why the age was so important and at least now it makes sense if not what i wanted to hear The reason it will cost us so much is that we need IVF as I have been steralised and my partner has had a vasectomy so we not only need IVF we also need ICSI and surgical sperm retrival too. I am now going to start looking at others clinics I think to try and get the costs down a bit. Thanks again for both your help.xx