I am still feeling devastated does anyone know anything about donar eggs

[losittoday]

Hi
I just feel totally useless, pathetic and so sad.
I was diagnopsed with premature ovarian failure last October and I am still having a hard time acceping that I am probably incapable of having another dc.
I had been ttc for a year when the infertility clinic gave me this news.
Because of how I am feeling and the overwhelming sadness that I feel I have started to wonder about egg donation but I have no knowledge of it.
I do intend to speak more to my gyno about this but was wondering if anyone knows anything about it.
I already have one dc of 8 and I am unsure as to whether I will be funded for that reason I could not afford it otherwise and the thought of managing to save for it and then for it not to work terrifies me.
Please does anyone know how it works.

I'm sorry I don't think you will be eligible for NHS funding if you already have a child. It is quite pricey about £5,000. But more likely to be successful than IVF with your own eggs (about 40%), so that is the silver lining.

I have also been told my only chance of pregnancy is with donor eggs, so I know what it is like - devastating! We have no children so have NHS funding but no guarantee that there will be a donor so its still a matter of luck unless you find your own donor.

You probably will not get donor egg funding on the NHS, but could go abroad as it is considerably cheaper and easier to organise - the waiting lists in the UK tend to be very very long (3-5 years). There are three clinics, one in Turkey, one in Czech republic, and one Barcelona, that people often try. Barcelona is not cheap, the other 2 are much more so.

If you go to www.fertilityfriends.co.uk there are several forums there for donor egg and those who have been to those clinics.

I'm sorry to hear your news and wish you the best of luck in your treatment.

I had the same thing - premature ovarian failure - and went to the Institut Marques in Barcelona last year for donor egg treatment. I was told donor treatment wasn't available on the NHS but maybe that is just in my area. If you do have to pay it isn't cheap in Barcelona and so you might want to shop around in other countries. We chose IM as its success rates are supposed to be very high. For us it worked well although the first time the pregnancy was ectopic unfortunately. However, after surgery we went back again for frozen embryo transfer and I am now 14 weeks pregnant. If it is possible (and I don't know if it is), it is probably worth being checked out before you go to make sure your tubes etc are healthy to minimise the chances of an ectopic pregnancy.

Bear in mind, if you do go abroad for treatment, often it will be anonymous so you and any child will not be able to find out information about the donor. That is no longer the case in the UK. If anonymous donation is a concern you may be better waiting for a donor here.

I would definitely second the recommendation to check out www.fertilityfriends.co.uk as we found lots of helpful information there on the different clinics and other practical stuff like places to stay when you are going for treatment.

One thing I would recommend is to have a good doctor in the UK who is an IVF specialist and will do the scans you will need to have done here. We went private for this although my GP was also very supportive with blood tests etc. It is a huge help to have someone here who can answer questions you may have during your treatment as it is not always so easy to get in touch with the clinic and doing everything by phone isn't always perfect.

One positive thing about donor egg treatment over IVF with your own eggs is that it is a lot less demanding on your body in terms of the drugs you have to take (just the contraceptive pill and later oestrogen and progesterone in my case).

Best of luck whatever you decide to do.

Unfortunately you would not get any funding from the NHS.

If you decided that this was the route you wanted to take then it would be quicker and cheaper to go abroad but, as Oranges said, it is likely that any donor would be totally anonymous. This appeals to some people and puts others off - as it means the child could never trace the donor should they want to.

Fertility Friends is an excellent place to start. A good friend of mine had treatment in Greece - no waiting time, success first time around and cost around £3,000