Egg sharing for compensated IVF

[QuickAmberQuoter]

Hi all,
Bit of background info, we have been struggling with malefactor infertility for over two years now, so have decided we need to go down the ICSI route.
I am currently looking at clinics that offer an egg sharing programme where I will donate half of my eggs in return for a cheaper IVF cost.
I am not interested in opinions on the ethics of this, as I have looked into it thoroughly and will donate my eggs at some point anyway after experiencing the pain of infertility, but I just wanted to hear if anyone has done this, what their experiences were, and what the process was like?
I can find lots of threads of experiences from using donor eggs, but not many from people who have shared their eggs and received compensated IVF themselves, so I’d be really intrigued to know how you found it.
Thanks in advance :)

We considered going down this route a bit, as on paper I have no fertility issues (same sex couple) and moved to IVF after 4 failed medicated IUI rounds. We didn't go too far down the path to be honest though - there are lots of criteria for being an egg donner (which I would have met on paper) but when I read more about some of the caveats (these might have changed, and my memory is fuzzy) I was put off a bit - for example there was things like you need to retrieve a certain number of eggs (might have been over 6 or so?) otherwise you either need to donate them all (and do another round for yourself), or if you want to keep them pay the full cost of your treatment. Likewise if you got an uneven number (like 9 for example) 5 would be given to someone else and 4 to you (you always got the lesser amount). I also did some soul searching about how I would feel if I donated my eggs and someone else got their child, but I didn't.

In the end it was better that I didn't sign up to be an egg sharer - I had a very poor response to stims on both my egg collection rounds. I've been lucky my second egg collection gave me 3 embryos - the 2 we have transfered have resulted in live births, and we'll soon transfer the third but then whatever the outcome that will be the end of our fertility journey. I only include this to flag that even if everything looks like its only male factor, you may get into the IVF process and find out you don't respond well for example and may wish to change your mind. I'd just recommend you're financially able to pay for the full IVF cycle if you find for any reason you want to keep all your eggs collected later down the line.

Wishing you the best of luck with your journey :)

Thank you for sharing your experience. It is an important consideration as you’re right, I have no idea how I will respond to treatment yet. I do believe if there is an uneven number, you as the donor get the larger amount. But I also think you are correct in that if there isn’t enough eggs to share, you will have to pay the full cost of treatment if you want to continue. Your eggs would not be given to somebody else at this point though. We could afford one cycle, but wouldn’t be able to afford more than this without taking out finance, that’s why I though egg sharing may lower the cost so we could potentially afford two/three cycles.

Also, so glad to hear you eventually got the babies you wished for :)

@QuickAmberQuoter Thank you :) I hope someone else will come along whose done it to give you their experience as well.