IVF questions - thinking about egg donation - pls help

[thinkingwhattodotoday]

I am thinking about donating eggs for a friend - this needs to be quite soon due to age. It's early days at the moment but I have a few qs I wondered if anyone could help with.

1. can I do the egg retrieval process whilst still breastfeeding - has anyone done this?
2. what is the egg retrieval process like?
3. does anyone have a good link they can link to on the process - thanks!

Hi there

It's a great thing that you're thinking of doing.

1. I think you'll be told to stop BFing. I had IVF to have my first child and went along to arrange more IVF when I was still BFing him. I was told I had to wean him off BFing and wait at least 2 cycles before doing IVF, due to the hormones and drugs used. Luckily, I got pregnant naturally and am still BFing him now (he's 18 months).

2. You will be basically going through the same process as a woman going through IVF, so roughly:

• your ovaries will be "switched off" (a process called down-regulating). This usually involes sniffing or injecting a drug to stop your ovaries from making any eggs naturally.
• Once your lining is nice and thin and your ovaries are dormant, you'll start stimulating your ovaries. This involves injecting a hormone that makes your ovaries produce as many egg follicles (and hopefully eggs) as possible. It usually takes 10-14 days of injecting, with regular scans of your ovaries and blood tests to make sure you don't hyperstimulate.
• Once your follicles are big enough, you take a final injection called a trigger shot which matures the eggs.
• About 36 hours after this trigger injection you have egg collection - this involves either general anasthetic or heavy sedation with the follicles being taken out via your vagina.
• recovery from egg collection varies. I found it OK, but took a week off work (more because of staying relaxed during the IVF process than because I physically needed that much time to recover).
• your eggs are then donated to your friend, and are mixed with her partner's sperm to fertilise.

No link I'm afraid (am at work about to go into a meeting so am rushing!) but if you search the talk archives you should fine something. I remember reading a thread a couple of years ago from a MNer who donated eggs to a friend of a friend (I think she also gave up BFing to do it) - I think her name was treedelivery. There should also be good info on Fertility Friends website.

Good luck to you and your friend whatever you decide!

Hi there

Sorry only a quick response here. I've just been through ivf (using my own eggs) and am now 9 weeks pg. Unfortunately donating eggs is effectively the same as going through ivf without the embryo transfer (which is pretty painless) and the dreaded 2 week wait (which is torture).

It would be an amazing thing to do for your friend but there's no point pretending it wouldn't be a massive commitment. I suffered from over simulation, the side effects from the drugs were horrendous and recovery from egg collection took a lot longer than I expected. Of course these things don't happen to everyone. There are also many many hospital appointments for scans and blood tests that you would need to attend.

I would definitely consider donating my eggs in the future but not until I was sure I had finished having my own children which will probably be when I'm older than 35 which I think is the cut-off (at least at my hospital).

Good luck with whatever you decide