Anyone used London Egg Bank - how many eggs?

[Aprilia123]

We’re getting to the point after failed IVF of thinking about the donor egg route.
If you’ve used London Egg Bank (or another frozen bank) - how many eggs did you get, and what was the outcome - as in how many fertilised, how many blasts, did it work?
Trying to work out what the best options are!

From London egg bank. Paid for 10, got 12. 10 survived the defrost, 9 were fertilised and then we got one 4aa, two 4ba and two 5cc. One transferred and four in the freezer. So 5 out of 12, but then I know of someone else who has had two live births out of six eggs, so it's difficult to predict.

I think I paid for six but got eight because that was how many they had from that donor and they just chucked in the extra ones free. I forget exactly how many fertilised but I ended up doing a day 5 transfer and having four more blasts in the freezer. The result of the transfer is currently half asleep on my lap.

It was, by far, the most successful cycle I ever had - far better than attempts with my own eggs or with fresh egg share donors. Which, to be honest, I didn't expect - it was really just a last ditch attempt because nothing else had worked and I thought I might as well.

I went for 10 and got 11. Peace of mind and maximises chances.

Thank you all! That’s super helpful. So far we’ve been impressed with them, I guess I still had the niggle of ‘but they’re frozen!’…

@tikha that was sort of my thinking - it’s a last ditch attempt so may as well go for massaging the numbers where you can.

Purchased 10, received 10 - 8 defrosted, 2 fertilised, no blasts

@Persipan @NotMyDayJob May I ask what clinics you went for? Did you conceive first time round?

I heard also that clinics in Barcelona are good.

I am actually 45 and have decided to try with egg donation (in my case it is also sperm donation too) as IVF did not work and I just cant imagine keep trying with IVF.

I am also aware that if one has antibodies, eg. thyroid antibodies the embruo transfer may not work so they give steroids.

@Aprilia123

What clinic are you going with? Do they provide eggs as well?
I really wish you all the best of luck.

May I ask how old you are and are you using your partner's sperm?

Would be intersted to hear of people needing to have multiple embryo transfers until they had a live birth and what were the main issues.

@NV42 Thank you. We’ve gone with London Egg Bank / London Women’s Clinic. The egg bank provides the eggs and the treatment is with the clinic, cost covers both. So far we’ve been happy but haven’t got to treatment yet.
I’m 42 and we’re using donor sperm. I don’t think they do steroids by default, I have thyroid antibodies and it hasn’t been mentioned for first round.

6 purchased

5 survived the defrost

2 blastocysts

2 BFNs ☹️

@greendress789 I am so sorry to hear this.. Are you going to try again?

Yes but we will go abroad as it's cheape.

@greendress789 I have heard Barelona is good. Where were you thinking?

Thinking of institute bernabeu.

@greendress789 I wish you all the best

We had terrible results as per the above - no idea what to do next, spent 14k and worse results than with own eggs

@MrsBF77 so you used frozen eggs from London Egg Bank?
Did you consider going for a clinic and using fresh eggs?

I wonder if it makes a difference if you use frozen or fresh eggs.

I'm about to start treatment with donor eggs from the London egg bank and so far they seem quite transparent. They discussed their success rates with us and mentioned that in a small percentage of cycles (I believe it was something like 4%) there are no embryos to transfer but overall most patients have about two embryos. Apparently the success rates are as good as with fresh eggs.

I really like that there are several donors to choose from and the eggs are available immediately so no surprises. Also, as opposed to Spain, our children will have the choice to know who the donor was, this is really important to us.

Wish us luck! 🤞

@MrsBF77 I’m really sorry about your outcome - not much else to say. I hope you’ve found a way forward.

As a bit of an update, we bought 10, got 12 and ended up with 2 blasts so not awesome but we got something. Numbers never seem to go our way! So now we wait and see.

@Aprilia123
@NV42

Hi both, just out of interest, and apologies if I offend in any way, I'm just curious as to how you both have made the decisio.

Has embryo adoption been a possibility in either of your cases? And if you've decided against it, why did you? I can see from both of your posts that you're looking to use both sperm and egg donations...

@anthurium I can only answer for us, but embryo donation was the first thing we considered as we need both parts, and it would take away the uncertainty of fertilisation, blast formation etc. Unfortunately our clinic and some others we spoke to said it is rarely available, which is why we made our choice.
Going abroad to Czech Republic / Spain etc where it’s more common was not an option for us as we wanted any potential child to be able to trace the donors should they wish to.

@Aprilia123 how did you get on with your transfers?
@NV42 had a successful transfer for DS but then 3 failed transfer so far for his sibling.
@anthurium we are a DD family - happy to discuss.

I used LEB for egg freezing and in my last cycle all my eggs were lost shortly before egg retrieval. This was apparently caused by premature ovulation and 3 days later I'm still waiting for a doctor to call me and discuss what went wrong. The quality of care I received wasnt great, and I dont believe I was monitored sufficiently as they should have detected in advance that I was already ovulating (from scans and blood tests) so they could have done my surgery in time. Completely traumatised, as I'm thousands out of pocket, and stressed and waiting for them to answer my questions.

Hello all,

I am looking for a donor egg alongside of trying naturally, I have low ovarian reserve for my age, we do want to become parents in the next 1-2 years if we can. I attended seminars and searched on the database and could not find any fitting profile unfortunately. (it is due to my Asian ethnic heritage... ) they are the biggest in the UK, so I wouldnt really know what to do or searching in other countries would hit some bettee result... The egg bank situation in China is not good. I wonder if need to go to America if funds allow.

@elleneo
I am sorry to read this experience, seems like they really should have monitored better and picked up the signs of ovulation in time and do the procedure, hope they had given you a proper follow up after the last post...! How did it go for you?

My miracle late conception daughter died suddenly during labour after a completely healthy pregnancy. I could have survived before, although after a lot more grieving which I'd already been doing for years, without having a baby. But now, it's completely different. No one will ever replace Indigo, but I'm a mother without a child in my arms and it's horrendous, it feels impossible.

After two years of trying naturally against all odds, my partner seems to have finally come around to the idea of egg donation (and I've got to a point where I have to try it, either way). And trying to decide which way to go. UK or Spain, fresh or frozen eggs.

I'm also looking for a specific ethnicity donor, which makes it more complicated and it looks like nowhere in Europe has an online database apart from LEB, and I don't even know if they collect from potential donors the information I'd need. Did people who've gone abroad totally trust the doctors to choose the donor / have an option to veto and get them to try again etc?

And does London Egg Bank offer any sort of guarantee, if the sperm has tested fine but there are no embryos?

Thank you.

I used London Egg Bank - the information you get from the them about the donors is really good and helps you see beyond the basics that you get when overseas. They also helped match based on facial characteristics (we had a narrow range of requirements so this was important). We wanted that for any potential child. In terms of stats we bought six eggs, got seven, of which five fertilised - one was transferred and four frozen so pretty good chance of it working. Overall am happy with them.