IVF with donor eggs in London - looking for advice

[fruityloop3]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are considering IVF with donor eggs in London (I’m 40 with low ovarian reserve, and we’ve had a tough two years ttc both naturally and with IVF).

I’d really welcome any advice. The Donor Conception Network website is great on the big picture stuff, but I am also after specifics eg

• What sort of waiting times can we expect in London before we are matched with a donor?
• How many clinics should we register with in order to get to the top of someone’s waiting list sooner?
• Do most clinics that offer IVF offer a donor egg option? Or should we also register with some donor egg agencies?

Any help much appreciated!

Hi
Sorry to hear that you’re going through this. It’s so tough.

My information may be slightly out of date as it was a couple of years ago that I looked into this in London.

I think most fertility clinics doing ivf do offer donor eggs. The ARGC doesn’t though unless you find your own donor.

In most cases the donor eggs offered through the fertility clinics are offered as part of their egg share program I.e. you get half the eggs of someone under going their own ivf (and the donor gets the other half of the eggs).

I think the main advantage of signing up to one of the agencies is that you can potentially get an exclusive donor-although that obviously comes at both a cost financially and it usually takes longer to get a match.

My understanding when I looked into it is that if a fertility clinics get an altruistic donor (which is uncommon), they share the eggs between you and another recipient so you’d still only get half on any eggs the donor produces.

As registering with a clinic to go on their donor egg waiting list usually costs several hundred pounds, it’s probably only worth going on one clinic’s waiting list. I was told that the wait is about 6-12 months to be matched with a donor, but I don’t know whether this has changed since I investigated it. It might be worth you calling a few clinics to find out how long their waiting lists generally are before deciding on a clinic.

Hope some of this is of use and I hope what I’ve said isn’t completely out of date. Good luck. It’s tough and I very well remember the feeling totally alone in a complete mine field!

Thank you so much EarlyGreyT - really helpful! I've now done a geeky table comparing clinics' HFEA stats and waiting times etc, but it is really helpful to have this ground truth.

Interesting if true about ARGC (i.e. that you have to have a known donor - or perhaps they're OK for you to get a donor through an agency? I'll check). Though I'd need to persuade my husband to go there, as he think they fiddle their stats... (and their prices are pretty intimidating too).

I find it weird when I remember that some people just have sex and a baby happens. It seems like another world...

I hate to say it, but I totally agree with your husband about the ARGC fiddling their stats. Their other clinic the RGI (Reproductive Genetics Institute) is not nearly as impressive. The ARGC would not treat me (when I was doing own egg treatment) as my FSH was above their cut off-meaning my chances of success weren’t great and I’d screw up their stats if they did treat me.

They definitely don’t offer egg donation though. argc.co.uk/treatments/egg-sperm-and-embryo-donation/

Yes, the idea of having a baby through having sex seems insane to me!

Hmm, thank you - v interesting to hear your direct experience of ARGC! I’ve spotted that the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health (CRGH) also have v good results, and do donor egg IVF (they run their own egg bank) but other than that I haven’t investigated them yet.

Hi, I've only just joined this today! Saw your thread and thought I'd mention the clinic where my hubby and I went. I'm currently 6w5d with our first attempt ivf with egg donation! Woohoo
We used The Women's Clinic in Harley Street and they have a sperm and egg bank next door. We were matched straight away, although a very surreal experience choosing an egg donor!!
I wish you all the luck in the world

Hi Sunflower - thank you for sharing this. Yes I've come across the London Women's Clinic and they seem good - glad to hear your experience of them was positive. Great to hear you are pregnant - wishing you lots of luck!

@fruityloop3 thanks and no problem. The team there are great and the nurses are available at anytime on the phone if you have worries.