Frozen donor eggs - questions

[LavenderL]

After failed OE IVF (ICSI) and many years of trying DH and I are feeling tentatively hopeful about embarking on donor eggs and have shortlisted the London Egg bank. We have decided that the frozen route is best for us and have our consultation with them soon. If anyone has experience using frozen donor eggs I'd love to hear your thoughts/experiences on a few questions I have

As the eggs are already frozen my guess is that they will align the date for providing sperm sample, fertilizing and hopefully transferring a blast with the dates of my period?

LEB had a 6 egg or 10 egg package. We're tempted to go for the 10 egg package even though its very expensive to give ourselves the best chance. But we are not sure whether 10 eggs all from one donor or a split (6/4) across two donors would be best decision. Has anyone had experience with this? How did you decide?

Thank you for your help

Welcome! My son was born using frozen eggs from LEB so it can definitely work.

Timing-wise, I seem to recall that for me it was basically like a medicated FET - so things kicked off from day 1 of my cycle but with a wheelbarrowful of HRT thrown into the mix. But this can really vary, so talk to your clinic about what to expect.

I only went for 6 eggs (although I actually got 8 because there happened to be a couple left over) and wasn't aware that a mix of donors was an option. What I would say is, the dream situation (if having more than one child is or might ever be of interest to you) is where you have a baby and also have embryos frozen to potentially have a sibling - and I can see that becoming more complex in terms of future discussing with your child/ren if those embryos were from different donors. Something to consider in counselling, perhaps.

Best of luck!

Thanks so much for your response, I've found infertility quite a lonely journey so I really appreciate it! So happy to hear about your son - congratulations!

I think you are absolutely right regarding the potential additional complications of multiple donors within one family

I was feeling very confident when I made my original post but since then - as it became a "real" possibility - I've felt quite overwhelmed with it all, with all the usual fears and doubts you read about. So lots more talking and thinking to do - I have an initial call with LEB next week though so hopefully that will help paint a more detailed picture for me

Its a hard place because its not a decision I want to rush, but as I am already a little bit older (41) time is probably not on my side!

Watching with interest as now looking at using DE for a second child. I’ve been speaking with Ovoria. They can ship eggs to my current clinic to use with my donor sperm. It’s a shame LEB don’t ship eggs to other clinics without having to create embryos with them first. However, they said later in the year they might start doing so.

https://intersono-ivf.com/egg-donor-bank/first-egg-bank-becomes-ovoria

I’m not with LEB, but we have just opted for a shared donor because of a better chance for a fertilisation. We have a genetic daughter, so I wouldn’t have more DE siblings.

We are with LEB (although having treatment at a clinic in the north due to where we live) and have been very happy so far. We went for the 10 eggs option for a few reasons: more chance of decent blasts with more eggs, meaning possibly more than one transfer possible if the first doesn't work (our last two euploid embryos both failed to implant on 2 FETs that I did last year so I'm cautious), the slight possibility of having more than one baby from the same batch (although I've just turned 44 so this is probably unlikely!).

The only thing I would say is that if you find a donor that you fall in love with and they only have 6 eggs then maybe the choice of the donor is more important? Have you registered on their site yet to start looking? you can filter the choices by how many eggs are available. We created a shortlist and then sent in photos of me alongside and they have a matching coordinator who was very helpful and that also finalised our choice.

We're meeting with the Dr and doing semen/blood tests in a couple of weeks and then my understanding is that the process will kick off in line with my cycle start date and the eggs will be thawed and fertilised as soon as I am ready for transfer (obv working backwards 5/6 days for development) but I'm happy to share more once we've seen them.

@Persipan do you mind sharing more about the HRT? what was that for?

Thanks for the responses everyone! Best of luck to those trying for their second child

@loulamay thanks for sharing where you are in the process. We have limited access to the site, but should get full access very soon (after our consultation with the dr on Monday). Its great to hear that the matching coordinators can help in that way.

Its a bit overwhelming but trying to take each practical step at a time - while researching and reading everything i can find!

We're not in London but its our nearest and easiest clinic to get to so have gone there. Did notice there is a "London price tag" which we could have avoided by travelling a bit further :)

Depending on how quickly or not we decide to move forward after the consultation we might be going through this at the same time, happy to keep chatting! Hope your tests etc go well.

The HRT is just the FET protocol at my clinic - it involves taking a lot of estradiol in the early part of my cycle and then adding progesterone to tell your endometrium you've ovulated when you haven't. So basically HRT drugs in large doses.

As the eggs are already frozen my guess is that they will align the date for providing sperm sample, fertilizing and hopefully transferring a blast with the dates of my period?
My situation is quite different from yours. I used my own eggs (frozen from many years ago, prior to cancer treatment), and donor sperm. My clinic (CRGH) recommended creating frozen embryos first, so I had 15 eggs thawed and that mixed with the sperm then created five 5 day embryos and one 6 day embryo, that all went in the deep freeze.
Separately, they then monitored me, and five days after ovulation, thawed one embryo. Nine months later, it pops out rather larger.
My clinic were clear that it was better to create frozen embryos rather than trying to "match" everything in one. (That's even more important if you are using your own eggs from a fresh cycle...).
I've not been in your situation but I'd personally choose all eggs from one donor, so that you have the option of a genetically identical sibling. I have three children, all born the same way, and it was really important to me they were 100% siblings. This was important to me anyway, but I was also concerned about them growing up and finding their "donor" and one having a donor that was really nice and wanting to get to know them, and the other not wanting to know. I'm probably over thinking things!
Good luck!

That’s amazing! Do you mind me asking how many transfers you had with DE before you had a positive result with your son?

thank you!

Hi @LavenderL how did your consultation go? I have a consultation with LWC early July and have many same questions as you - hope things are moving along for you x

Sorry just realised this post was started a year ago! Would still be good to hear how everyone is getting on and any advice would also be appreciated x

@NewHope86 how is it going for you? We are also at the start of the process!