Donor egg miscarriage

[eloisa246]

hi all,
I'm 47 and started on de ivf this year- and so far had two cycles with embryos from the same donor (and dh sperm). The first cycle didn't work - the second did, but resulted in miscarriage at 8 weeks (diagnosed at 10).
It's really knocked me back as I thought miscarriage risks would be so much lower with DE.
We have one embryo left from that donor...does anyone with experience in DE IVF think it's better to switch to another donor if we want to try again ? (Donor also miscarried - it was an egg share arrangement). Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

Sorry to hear this.

I hope you don’t mind me asking but I just wanted to ask a couple of things before giving an opinion.

1. how many eggs did you get from the donor?
2. how many embryos did you get?
3. does your husband have any sperm issues And finally, do you know why your donor is having IVF?

hi EarlGreyT,,
Thanks for taking an interest....opinions definitely welcome.
We got 5 eggs which fertilised properly and 3 made it to high quality 5 day blasts.
DH's sperm is good according to the clinic tests.
I don't know why the donor is having IVF - but she must have good ovarian reserve to be accepted as a donor...

What did your fertility doctors tell you your odds were of having a healthy baby in this way?

As well as the egg ovaries produce hormones etc to support early pregnancy, older ovaries or ovaries affected by health issues are less effective at this which can cause MC.

Hormones are given as part of medication and the egg comes from a younger donor.

I think if I was in your position, I would transfer the embryo you have frozen and if that’s unsuccessful (and assuming you’re able to continue), then switch to another donor.

It’s quite easy to think donor eggs are going to be the magic answer as the success rates are so good and clinics are very positive about your chances, but unfortunately there are people who it doesn’t work for straight away. The miscarriage rate is much lower with younger donor eggs than with your own eggs (although unfortunately it isn’t 0), so I can totally understand why it has completely knocked you sideways.

I hesitate to say this, but it’s likely to be a numbers thing isn’t it? 5 eggs (from an egg share) with 3 making it to day 5 is good numbers reaching day 5. If your remaining embryo is of sufficient quality to be suitable for freezing, then it’s a good embryo and worth using. If you’ve egg shared then I presume that if the embryo you have left isn’t successful then you’d have to have a new donor anyway?

That’s my 2 pence worth. Good luck whatever you decide. Would it be worth also getting some advice from your clinic about next steps?

Hormones are given but can’t fully emulate healthy ovaries.

Hormones are given but can’t fully emulate healthy ovaries.
They don’t need to. They just need to be sufficient to maintain a pregnancy. The purpose of them isn’t to try and fully emulate healthy ovaries, hence the need to use donor eggs in the first place.

The success rate of a donor egg pregnancy is roughly that of the success rate of a pregnancy in a woman of the donor’s age.

So around 30% according to a Telegraph article on fertility treatment.

I had/have an ovarian issue myself. It’s often not as simple as taking hormones, sadly.

It’s a live birth rate of about 30% per embryo transferred with donor eggs. Which is actually really good.

In own egg IVF in women under 35 the success rate per embryo transferred is about the same.

This is U.K. data from the HFEA. Rates abroad are often even higher as its unusual not to have an exclusive donor abroad (aside from the USA) and therefore you usually get more eggs and a higher number of embryos to choose from. Whereas in the U.K. most donors are egg sharers.

eloisa246 - I am so sorry, MC is hard. I'm in a similar position, 3 donor embryos that made it to day 5. We transferred one but I had a MMC at 12.5 weeks which we discovered at 14 weeks. We're going to try a FET in January after recovering and some testing. According to my doctor it's likely that the embryos are fine but it's just an issue that miscarriage risks are high in all pregnancies. I can't say this is the same for you but our situations are similar. Based on doctor recommendations I'm going to continue with the donor eggs I have for now and hope one of the 3 makes it. Good luck!

Hello everyone,

I'm 41 and after 5 rounds of failed IVF (to be precise: 1 was a chemical pregnancy and 4 we didn't transfer any embryos due to PGS abnormal results), we started IVF with egg donor in October last year. Unfortunately, we had a miscarriage at 9 weeks (diagnosed at 10). They transfer the best ( according to their grading) embryo and everything was fine. There was even a heartbeat and all the levels were absolutely fine. Unfortunately, the scan we did at week 10 showed no heartbeat.
I had a previous miscarriage 3 years ago and it was a natural pregnancy.

We have 6 embryos left from our donor and although financially, mentally, and physically is extremely hard, we are not giving up. This time, however, we are trying another transfer with less medication. I think the progesterone and the blood thinner will still be necessary. I hope we won't compromise anything by not taking as many meds as the previous round.
Finally, we asked our consultant about doing the PGS on the remaining embryos before doing another transfer and he didn't recommend it this time.
Has anyone been in a similar situation?
Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.