Egg donor clinic recommendations/ success stories?

[TheGlitterFairy]

Hi, after an unsuccessful 4th round of IVF - cancelled over the weekend due to my low ovarian reserve/ poor response, DH and I are looking to move to DE.

I’ve been scouring the boards looking for info on the best places to go, and know that anonymous donor vs non anonymous is probably the starting point for the discussion but I’d be grateful if anyone could share their story and/ or if anyone would be able to recommend the clinic they used?

I’ve seen lots written about IVI Spain/ Alicante and clinics in Cyprus too - and have been looking at egg donation friends. Equally, my clinic in London offer this too so lots of info but great to hear from others.

Thanks in advance!

Trying so pleased to hear you went ahead with the second donor and that she’s started treatment. Great news - and being sole recipient is a great way forward too. Agree it seems hard to think about siblings when it’s so hard to have the first but good to think ahead.

Sounds as though we are on a similar time frame as our donor has not started treatment too!! SO excited to have finally got to this stage - it genuinely felt as though we would never get here. No guarantees of anything of course but we’re over the start line so there’s hope now!!! I’m guessing from the timeframe also that her collection will be end of Feb/ beginning of March. Not sure what that means in terms of our treatment following this - as a few overseas work trips in March that I need to get out of the way! Are you planing to do your treatment ASAP following your donors?
Fingers crossed for both our donors!!

That's great news, Glitter! Mine is based on a modified natural cycle, so timing-wise it's looking like embryo transfer in the first half of April for me. Like you, I can't quite believe we've got here! Wishing you all the very best of luck with yours and keeping fingers crossed for us both

Hi - thought I'd post an update of where things are - our amazing donor had her egg collection last week and we now have a final total of 3 blasts on ice! Can't quite believe it! They're in quarantine now for a short while and hoping to start treatment on my next cycle!

Trying hope that your donor is doing well with things and all goes to plan!

How exciting! Fingers crossed for you glitter.
I thought I'd give an update too- I had my transfer and it went really well.
I have had a positive bfp so am allowing myself a little bit of hopeful excitement. But because of previous losses, it's tempered with caution.

I'm trying not to think too far ahead. I've got a scan in a couple of weeks to check the position is ok. Im aiming to just take it day by day and get to that point. 🤞

Sequined that’s wonderful wonderful news! Congratulations!! How many embryos did you have and how many did you have transferred?

Very exciting indeed! Taking things a day at a time is a great way of moving forward - I should take that advice! Good luck for your scan! 🤞

Thanks! Just one embryo transferred as I didn't want to run the risk of multiples.
Definitely feeling pregnant now. But I'm preparing for the worst and hoping for the best if that makes sense.

Hey, hope everyone's well? Sorry I've been a bit quiet, it's been kind of a hectic time. Long story short, for various reasons, we ended up going for embryo transfer a couple of weeks earlier than planned ... and thank goodness we did, as our clinic stopped all transfers four days later because of COVID-19! So I've been riding out the 2WW in what feels like the strangest of circumstances, but was lucky enough to get a BFP yesterday when I tested .

How's everyone else doing?

@Tryingtofigurethingsout that's fantastic news! So much good luck to you, congratulations.

Mine isn't such good news, but I was preparing for it. Went for my 8 week scan and no heartbeat and hadn't grown😞. I'm hoping to try again when all this madness stops.

Hey @sequinednostrils, I'm really sorry to hear that . Even if you've prepared yourself for the worst, it's still so hard to deal with. Take care of yourself x

Tryingtofigurethingsout that's wonderful news - many congratulations! Great idea to transfer a little earlier than planned with all of this going on at the moment. Hope you're feeling well with it all?

Sequinednostrils so very sorry to hear this. I hope that you're able to take this enforced time at home to regroup and come out the other side being able to try again.

My update is that things are not smooth again as they don't seem to have been throughout all of this process!! So - we were due to start treatment a couple of weeks ago. I went for a saline scan and scratch prior to starting this and unfortunately the consultant found 2 small issues that need to be dealt with surgically before we can proceed. There seems to be a new polyp in my uterus that has never been there before - and also one of my tubes has fluid in it. Again, not been seen before and this is most likely to be endo related. They're both easy to sort out but as I'll need a GA, obvs all of that is on hold at the moment while the coronavirus situations plays out - so I have no idea when i'll be able to have the surgery and then start treatment. So frustrated that we've not been able to get on with it but trying to just think positively in that at least we have the 3 embryos on ice and there will be a time when we can move forward.

Separately - hope everyone is ok with all of this going on and is able to wfh/ not ill etc. It's an odd time that we're in. x

Hi, I have just started looking into this journey, as I believe it's our only sensible and realistic option now. I'm 43 and had 2 MC last year followed by a very recent stillbirth at 33weeks. We desperately wanted our last baby and time is running out. It took 3 years to get here, and we are accepting that my eggs are just not viable any more. We clearly don't have another 3 years to try again, or the mental capacity for any more heartache that getting pregnant (and not) with my own eggs is very likely to cause. Looking at statistics we have a less than 5% chance of conceiving naturally and then over 50% chance of that being unsuccessful, or going the route of DE for a 60-70% chance of a live birth.
So we are making the choice now of just accepting that we will never have another baby, or going the DE route.
We have a clinic nearby in Cambridge that does DE but we don't know much about it or waiting times etc. We want to take the quickest route possible as with my age I don't want to be hurtling past any more birthdays before we get a chance to try. What do you guys think is the quickest way? Are there clinics that have eggs waiting and ready to go? Or are they all based on waiting lists? Would it shorten the time frame to travel? I am still so new to all this and in the early stages of research.

Hi @Cleozeta and welcome! Firstly, I'm so sorry for your losses what a heartbreaking journey you have been through. Making the decision to opt for donor eggs is not easy I found it very helpful to join the DCN (www.dcnetwork.org/). As well as having some useful resources on their website, they can put you in touch with someone who's been through a very similar situation to you, with whom you can talk things through. It's a whole new world once you make this decision, and I found it a bit overwhelming to know where to start. Like you, I'm 43 and didn't want to be hanging around though. In the end, we started by deciding on the kind of donor we wanted. Everyone has their own set of circumstances and reasons for making this decision, but my husband and I wanted to use both an altruistic donor and one whose identity our child would be able find out one day. That basically meant sticking with treatment in the UK rather than going overseas (although I think the rules have changed in Portugal now, so that might be an option for some). We then looked at clinics close to us who offered this (we wanted to move from our previous one anyway) and, as luck would have it, the one we found only uses altruistic donors for private patients, so we didn't even have to research separate agencies for this. From what I can gather, waiting times vary from one clinic to the next, but ours was very quick ... just a couple of months. We went on the waiting list on 22nd November last year and we accepted our donor on 20th January this year! She went into treatment straight away and I had my embryo transfer in mid-March, so things moved pretty quickly overall. I wish you all the very best with things and hope that you can find a way forward.

Hi @TheGlitterFairy, sorry about the delayed response. I've been lying low a bit, just trying to get through the first trimester. It's been a pretty anxious time, but we finally made it to the 12-wk scan on Friday, and I'm overjoyed to say that all is well! I truly hope this doesn't appear smug or anything, when I know your treatment has been on hold. My heart breaks for everyone who's been put in the awful position of having treatment postponed indefinitely while the current situation plays out. Now that clinics are starting to reopen, do you know when you might be able to have your surgery and re-start treatment?

Hi tryingtofigurethingsout, thank you so much for your response. Without sounding stupid (not easy for me haha) what does 'altruistic' donor mean?
I did some research on local clinics and our main one has a waiting list of up to 12 months so that's a no go. I found Manchester Fertility does frozen donor eggs with no waiting list, plus I like the idea of the eggs being ready so not having to put anyone out having to go through treatment for me. Manchester is absolutely nowhere near me, but figured it would be worth the travel to do things quickly. Unfortunately though due to this blooming virus, there is now waiting time.
Congratulations on your pregnancy, it's great to hear success stories. You timed it well too, just before lockdown!

Hi @cleozeta, an altruistic donor is someone who donates purely because they want to help someone else have a child. The other main types of donor that I'm aware of are egg-sharers (women who receive discounted IVF treatment in return for sharing some of their own eggs) and known donors (e.g. a friend or family member). It's worth doing some research into the stats around frozen donor eggs versus fresh, as I believe the success rates are higher with the latter (although I'm not sure how much by). The good thing about a donor cycle is that you yourself will need to go to the clinic less often than you would if you were using your own eggs, so perhaps that makes having to travel further a bit more of an option. Hope this helps.

Thanks, that makes sense. I did look into the stats, and fresh DE is higher, but only marginally. Fresh takes longer as you have to match up with someone and then coordinate cycles. Frozen is good to go. And there is definitely the benefit of less travel.

Has anyone got any experiences of clinics within the Northwest of England. I’ve recently suffered a missed miscarriage of our own naturally conceived baby but looking at my levels and advice from fertility clinics literally the week before we found out we were pregnant. We are not eligible for nhs IVF and IVF would have less that 5%if that chance of working and donor eggs were recommended. So we are on the hunt for a clinic around us as we are aware of some really long waiting lists.
I’m 31 with AMH of 0.2 and FSH of 15.8. We had been trying to conceive for over two years.

@Eireblue

Has anyone got any experiences of clinics within the Northwest of England. I’ve recently suffered a missed miscarriage of our own naturally conceived baby but looking at my levels and advice from fertility clinics literally the week before we found out we were pregnant. We are not eligible for nhs IVF and IVF would have less that 5%if that chance of working and donor eggs were recommended. So we are on the hunt for a clinic around us as we are aware of some really long waiting lists. I’m 31 with AMH of 0.2 and FSH of 15.8. We had been trying to conceive for over two years.

We were hoping for a fresh egg donor but we realise that the waiting list is so long and looking at the margins frozen also seems a viable option. Also we have seen a lot of variation in pricing can anyone offer any advice on why to expect cost wise if going do the Donor egg route within the U.K. preferably the North West?

I would recommend checking out London Women’s Clinic, I believe they are attached to London Egg Bank and there’s no waiting as the eggs are frozen. The website has a ‘catalogue’ which can be a bit more info that I would have expected but you can always call them. I think they have clinics outside of London.

@Tryingtofigurethingsout congratulations!!! What an amazing feeling it must be. I hope to be there one day!

Thank you for your recommendation. We keep going between deciding on trying with donor egg or hoping they will accept us for IVF. We shall see. I'll look into this clinic though

@Tryingtofigurethingsout congratulations on reaching your 2nd trimester. Keeping everything crossed for you 🥰

Hi @Tryingtofigurethingsout congratulations on reaching your second trimester - that really is fantastic news and I'm sure gives us all hope for the future! It certainly has for me anyway!! :)

No news yet on when I can have the surgery I need and then begin treatment. The consultant said that the NHS have bought up all of the private beds until the end of June (I'm able to have the surgery privately which was of course meant to be faster) so really not sure on a timeframe for this. I keep meaning to email him to see if he has an update so will add that to my list this week. Though tbh, not sure if I want to be in a hospital until things have calmed down a bit here (London). I suspect that it'll end up all being at the back end of this year - at least, that's what i've told myself and then if its anything sooner, it's a bonus. Please do keep your fingers crossed!

Welcome @Cleozeta - I hope you've been able to look into some of the various clinics and options available. Our donor is through an agency called Altrui and they were fantastic! They match a donor to you specifically though of course this means that it can take a while to a) find someone who matches you and then b) for them to go through the treatment.

There's the egg bank at great portland street that may be able to help too - they have one of the largest banks of frozen eggs in europe (apparently). There's one in Manchester too but I can't recall the name of it I'm afraid....

Hopefully we will all be on our way with treatment soon....

I looked into Altrui and listened to a couple of webinars and talks they had with donors and I found them both donor and recipient oriented, really caring. I would have definitely chosen to go with Altrui if it had not been for our timeline ( I understand why it takes time with the approach they take). We have decided to go with the London egg bank and hope this will be successful, at the end of the day we never know how these eggs will behave when they thaw and if their quality is good enough. I am looking forward though. Due to start August/September.
@TheGlitterFairy I completely understand your concern about any procedures at the moment. I am waiting at the moment to see if my cyst goes away in its own or not. So this may add waiting and a bit of worry.

We looked into altrui too, and went to a webinar, but again, because of the timeline, decided against it. It would have taken too long. We are going to go for Manchester fertility (even though we live down south) as the prices are good and they have a frozen egg bank, so hopefully the wait will not be too bad (after covid delays though not so sure). Going for our initial tests this week, then hopefully we can choose a donor and start planning.
Leala - are you waiting until Aug/Sept by choice or is that the soonest they can do? My clinic has not given me a start date yet but hoping it's sooner than that. Not getting any younger, and totally panicking about a second lockdown!