I'm so sorry for your struggles. Infertility sucks big time.

I've been through infertility though not with donor eggs. I had a look of treatment abroad. The issues I found were;

1. while the treatment was cheaper, the cost of travel, accommodation and now a days potential self isolation meant that it came out roughly the same price. Particularly if it takes more than one round
   
   
2. other countries don't have the same regulation as here and I was uncomfortable with some practices around how donations were collection / paid for and how many babies could be created from one donor.
   
   It's worth a detailed look into and assessment of all the costs but in the end it wasn't a path we went down.

My frozen donor egg success story is currently napping next to me!

One thing to consider, on top of what pps have mentioned, is the anonymity aspect - many of the European destination countries for donor egg treatment mandate anonymity, which can be very complex for donor-conceived people to navigate later in life. I opted to have UK treatment because it was important to me that my child be able to access information about their donors when he's 18.

To be able to ship donor eggs to the UK, they'd need to meet the UK standard in that respect. I'm not sure how being able to see a photo would sit with the wider UK regs - have you asked your clinic about this? It, failing that, presumably the HFEA would know.

Good luck!

I do but a weird one as I had all my drugs and scans here in the UK and flew to Alicante for the donor eggs and actual transfers etc. We paid around £10k in all including flights (3 lots as we flew over and back in a day for DH to do the sperms donation) and a 5 star hotel (twice). Our second round worked and he is currently reading his school book with his Daddy. He is the light of our lives. We are being open with him about the donor eggs but right now he isn't interested!

Hi @Hopeandlight - I've had donor egg IVF both here and abroad. I echo the previous concerns around having eggs shipped in - I don't think you'll be able to do that under HFEA regs but obviously you'll get a definitive answer from the clinic.

I just wanted to chip in with something to think about . . . when I started this journey, I want to know what the donor looked like too. I looked abroad, primarily because treatment is much cheaper than the UK, and spoke to a clinic in the Ukraine. They emailed me a link and password to a site where I could log on and choose a donor. Basically, a donor catalogue.

This made me very, very uncomfortable and the more I looked into it, the more I questioned whether these women were being exploited - the regulations to protect donors in the Ukraine seem lax to say the least.

I eventually had treatment (anonymous donor) at a clinic in Prague which gave me assurances around their egg collection practices and treatment of women. Sadly it didn't work on the two occasions we tried.

I then had treatment in the UK. When the clinic found a donor for me, they gave me her physical characteristics (height, weight, eye colour, hair colour, skin tone etc.) and a letter from the donor, in which she described her motivations for donating eggs and a bit more about herself. Something in my head clicked. We had the same hobbies and interests, the same favourite food, the same outlook on life . . . and frankly it wouldn't have mattered a jot what this kind and generous woman looked like, I was so happy at the possibility of treatment with her eggs.

DD is due to wake up from her nap any minute now

I would so recommend treatment in the UK, if you can stretch to the expense. You won't get a photo but you'll be able to get a "feel" for the kind of person your donor is from their letter, rather than try to guess from a photo . . .

Hey

I have donor egg twins boys thanks to a clinic in Greece we chose to go there as we wanted it to be anonamous because we aren't sure if we're tell them or not so that was our decision - my understanding is there is only very limited countries that show pictures most of them only give characterics , we never had a picture as wasn't allowed just info and our twins one looks like me and one looks like daddy so at the end of the day as long as your clinic abroad has good matching skills there is no reason you won't have a child that looks similar to you.

I’d recommend a UK clinic for the reasons previous posters have mentioned. Our little miracle is just having her morning nap...she has the same hair colour as me, similar nose & round cheeks, and no one has ever looked at me with so much love & trust. People who don’t know we used a donor tell me she is the image of me and not her dad, lols . Wishing you all the best in your journey / it’s really hard but so worth it xxx

Like PP said clinics in the UK are better regulated as they report to the HFEA, eggs shipped to the clinic must still be UK compliant so you wouldn't be able to transfer eggs in that breached UK restrictions. Whilst there's some fantastic clinics abroad I do feel donors are better screened in the UK, they have mandatory counselling and genetic screening and are also restricted to a 10 family limit, you also know they haven't been paid for their eggs only compensated expenses. Whilst it's natural to be curious about what the donor looks like I do feel all of the above would be more important to me when consider a clinic

Good luck with your treatment, I did do donor egg IVF both abroad and in the UK, I also work in a job where I see both donors and recipients on a daily basis

@Hopeandlight best of luck xx

@Hopeandlight good luck. We have a son from double donation via frozen eggs. Happy to chat further PM if you like :)

Hi , Angliski, just would like to ask pleasedid you have your treatment in UK. We are at the point of starting double donor route , but hard to decide about frozen or fresh eggs ?

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Talk Donor conception
Frozen donor eggs ... advice and success stories please ...17
30/09/2020 15:20 Hopeandlight

Hope this message works...

Completely new to mumsnet and wondered whether anyone could give me some advice please ...

Me, 43, I've been pregnant 4 times; once naturally ended in miscarriage, 2nd successful ivf now have daughter, 3rd icsi ended in miscarriage, 4th icsi ended in chemical pregnancy and most recent cycle got a BFN. No issues with my partner's sperm. Been told due to my age and my pregnancy loss history I could continue and go through another cycle with my own eggs, but the chances of success are only 8-10%.

It seems although my eggs are trying very hard it may be time to consider what I thought I'd never consider .... donor eggs.

I've spoken to my UK clinic and the costs here for fresh donor egg seem eye watering (although the cost of what we've spent on fertility treatment over the years is eye watering anyway.) I also feel uncomfortable in that you aren't allowed to see a profile photo of your donor ... I understand the UK regulations but that doesn't sit easy with me.

I'm wondering whether we could use a country (in the EU or US?) who have egg donor banks who do provide profile photos of your egg donor and then ship over the frozen eggs to my UK clinic?

(I'm sure like many of you we were also postponed (just before transfer) on one of my cycles this year due to covid, so it's been a thoroughly grim year!)

Any advice / people that have done this / had success would be great and really helpful to hear.

Thank you!!!
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30/09/2020 15:35 Twizbe

I'm so sorry for your struggles. Infertility sucks big time.

I've been through infertility though not with donor eggs. I had a look of treatment abroad. The issues I found were;

1. while the treatment was cheaper, the cost of travel, accommodation and now a days potential self isolation meant that it came out roughly the same price. Particularly if it takes more than one round
   
   
2. other countries don't have the same regulation as here and I was uncomfortable with some practices around how donations were collection / paid for and how many babies could be created from one donor.
   
   It's worth a detailed look into and assessment of all the costs but in the end it wasn't a path we went down.
   Bookmark
   
   30/09/2020 15:43 Persipan
   
   My frozen donor egg success story is currently napping next to me!
   
   One thing to consider, on top of what pps have mentioned, is the anonymity aspect - many of the European destination countries for donor egg treatment mandate anonymity, which can be very complex for donor-conceived people to navigate later in life. I opted to have UK treatment because it was important to me that my child be able to access information about their donors when he's 18.
   
   To be able to ship donor eggs to the UK, they'd need to meet the UK standard in that respect. I'm not sure how being able to see a photo would sit with the wider UK regs - have you asked your clinic about this? It, failing that, presumably the HFEA would know.
   
   Good luck!
   Bookmark
   
   30/09/2020 16:40 Hopeandlight
   
   Thank you ladies.
   
   Congrats on your success Persipan! So great to hear!
   
   Hmmm yes a lot to think about around regulations and anonymity...
   
   Yes, I'm waiting to hear back from my clinic about my questions so we'll see...
   
   Anyone else have positive success stories?
   
   Thanks!
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   03/10/2020 15:18 Cutesbabasmummy
   
   I do but a weird one as I had all my drugs and scans here in the UK and flew to Alicante for the donor eggs and actual transfers etc. We paid around £10k in all including flights (3 lots as we flew over and back in a day for DH to do the sperms donation) and a 5 star hotel (twice). Our second round worked and he is currently reading his school book with his Daddy. He is the light of our lives. We are being open with him about the donor eggs but right now he isn't interested!
   Bookmark
   
   03/10/2020 15:31 RedPandaFluff
   
   Hi @Hopeandlight - I've had donor egg IVF both here and abroad. I echo the previous concerns around having eggs shipped in - I don't think you'll be able to do that under HFEA regs but obviously you'll get a definitive answer from the clinic.
   
   I just wanted to chip in with something to think about . . . when I started this journey, I want to know what the donor looked like too. I looked abroad, primarily because treatment is much cheaper than the UK, and spoke to a clinic in the Ukraine. They emailed me a link and password to a site where I could log on and choose a donor. Basically, a donor catalogue.
   
   This made me very, very uncomfortable and the more I looked into it, the more I questioned whether these women were being exploited - the regulations to protect donors in the Ukraine seem lax to say the least.
   
   I eventually had treatment (anonymous donor) at a clinic in Prague which gave me assurances around their egg collection practices and treatment of women. Sadly it didn't work on the two occasions we tried.
   
   I then had treatment in the UK. When the clinic found a donor for me, they gave me her physical characteristics (height, weight, eye colour, hair colour, skin tone etc.) and a letter from the donor, in which she described her motivations for donating eggs and a bit more about herself. Something in my head clicked. We had the same hobbies and interests, the same favourite food, the same outlook on life . . . and frankly it wouldn't have mattered a jot what this kind and generous woman looked like, I was so happy at the possibility of treatment with her eggs.
   
   DD is due to wake up from her nap any minute now grin
   
   I would so recommend treatment in the UK, if you can stretch to the expense. You won't get a photo but you'll be able to get a "feel" for the kind of person your donor is from their letter, rather than try to guess from a photo . . .
   Bookmark
   
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   03/10/2020 16:42 Hopeandlight
   
   Thank you both for taking the time to write about your experiences and the info. So great to hear you've both been successful! smile
   
   RedPandaFluff I really relate to how you describe something clicking and that you had a really positive feeling about your UK donor from her letter - so lovely to hear.
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   04/10/2020 15:04 treezuk
   
   Hey
   
   I have donor egg twins boys thanks to a clinic in Greece we chose to go there as we wanted it to be anonamous because we aren't sure if we're tell them or not so that was our decision - my understanding is there is only very limited countries that show pictures most of them only give characterics , we never had a picture as wasn't allowed just info and our twins one looks like me and one looks like daddy so at the end of the day as long as your clinic abroad has good matching skills there is no reason you won't have a child that looks similar to you.
   Bookmark
   
   04/10/2020 17:06 Hopeandlight
   
   treezuk thanks for your msg and info. Congrats on your twin boys, fantastic news! That's reassuring to hear about the matching.
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   09/10/2020 10:04 Midlifebaby
   
   I’d recommend a UK clinic for the reasons previous posters have mentioned. Our little miracle is just having her morning nap...she has the same hair colour as me, similar nose & round cheeks, and no one has ever looked at me with so much love & trust. People who don’t know we used a donor tell me she is the image of me and not her dad, lols . Wishing you all the best in your journey / it’s really hard but so worth it xxx
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   09/10/2020 10:39 Hopeandlight
   
   Midlifebaby thanks for your lovely msg. Your daughter sounds adorable! Congrats and thanks for sharing xx
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   11/10/2020 06:25 Lauren83
   
   Like PP said clinics in the UK are better regulated as they report to the HFEA, eggs shipped to the clinic must still be UK compliant so you wouldn't be able to transfer eggs in that breached UK restrictions. Whilst there's some fantastic clinics abroad I do feel donors are better screened in the UK, they have mandatory counselling and genetic screening and are also restricted to a 10 family limit, you also know they haven't been paid for their eggs only compensated expenses. Whilst it's natural to be curious about what the donor looks like I do feel all of the above would be more important to me when consider a clinic
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   15/10/2020 16:05 Hopeandlight
   
   Lauren83 thanks for your message and yes I agree. We have decided to opt for a UK egg donor.
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   15/10/2020 17:54 Lauren83
   
   Good luck with your treatment, I did do donor egg IVF both abroad and in the UK, I also work in a job where I see both donors and recipients on a daily basis
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   15/10/2020 18:50 Cutesbabasmummy
   
   @Hopeandlight best of luck xx
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   28/03/2021 23:33 Angliski
   
   @Hopeandlight good luck. We have a son from double donation via frozen eggs. Happy to chat further PM if you like smile
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   Today 17:51 Nat2a27
   
   Hi , Angliski, just would like to ask please did you have your treatment in UK. We are at the point of starting double donor route , but hard to decide about frozen or fresh eggs ?

Nope , Prague. Frozen eggs