Donor Embryo

[JRTfan]

I'm currently 16 weeks pregnant with a donor embryo (treatment abroad) and wondered if anyone else in same boat? I've been quite surprised that the nurses and midwife I've come across don't seem to have much experience of double donor pregnancies.
They get very confused when I explain that I'm 40 but the embryo is from 20ish year olds!

Congratulations on your pregnancy! I guess it's not a very common situation to have a double donor embryo, but really on terms of baby health it's no different to just using a 20yo egg donor.

And in terms of your health it doesn't make any difference at all who's dna is in the embryo, they'll still want to proceed on the pathway for mothers 40+ who have conceived naturally/with their own dna.

Thanks for your reply @LavenderSweetPea as the embryo 'age' is younger than it would be had we used our own sperm/eggs there is a reduced risk of certain abnormalities. My age is obviously a factor though when carrying the baby e.g placenta issues and babies can be smaller. I'm glad they are treating me as high risk and giving us extra care/attention. With the clinic I used there were many,many UK based couples in the same boat as us so I was used to being the 'norm' rather than the 'exception!' Just interested to see if anyone else on here has been through or going through the same.

Congratulations! I think it's because they are all geared up to care for you, the mother, rather than separately for a (younger age) embryo. I found similar when I was attempting with donor eggs. Which country did you have your treatment if you don't mind me asking?

@HoHoHoliday yep makes sense it was just complete confusion at my 12 week bloods as the nurse didn't seem to have come across it before which I was quite surprised about.
We went to Reprofit in Czech Republic I would highly recommend them. Wish we had done it sooner rather than waste time and (a lot of!) money at UK clinics.

Ah I did look at them but Czech clinics don't allow treatment for single parents and I was going it alone. I went to Denmark.

Did they give a reason?

@kiwiaddict It's just the law in Czech Republic - they don't offer fertility treatments to single parents nor homosexual couples.

Im in the same boat!
I am 40 (turning 41 in a week!) and currently almost 28 weeks pregnant with a donor embryo, from a 22 year old egg donor!

However, I am not in the UK, and the hospital and my private OB are both well versed in donor eggs and embryos, so after the initial explanation, all is good!

Obviously, Im still being considered high risk, due to my actual age, but no one was worried about anyt trissomies or anything like that (I did the regular tests, but not the fetal DNA or anything)

I'm 12 weeks with a donor embryo at the moment. Due to my age, we had the NIPT done but there appear to be no issues.
Good luck with yours. I'm having my 12 week scan later this week.

Ah hello nice to here from those in the same boat @Busyhedgehog where are you based and where did you have treatment if you don't mind me asking.
@ASGIRC I think it's a much more common practice in other countries, unfortunately it is almost impossible to get double donor IVF in the UK due to cost and availability.

@JRTfan We moved to Germany a few years ago. It's illegal to use donor eggs or donor embryos here, so we went to the Czech Republic for treatment. (We had gone through normal ivf here first of all but it didn't work. We had DS with the help of the fertility clinic back in the UK but didn't need ivf back then.)

Possibly it is unusual due to higher rates of freezing of one's own eggs in the UK. It is being suggested now for women of lower age.. Maybe the donor embryos will decline as women take that advice. All the best for a healthy pregnancy.

In Portugal, where I am and where I did the treatment, donor embryo treatment is about 3x cheaper than double donation, so it was a clear choice for me, when I decided against using my own eggs!
The only downside is that I dont have any "extra" embryos, in case I want to go for a second one, but there was no guarantee that would happen with an egg donor either!

As a donor conceived pregnancy you are at higher risk of a number of compilations. I hope this was explained to you in full at overseas clinic and it's good that your midwives are informed of the circumstances so they can keep an extra watchful eye for any symptoms.

Have you any way of reaching the gamete donors in the future or are they anonymous? There may be siblings your child wants to meet and get to know in the future, as well as their genetic parents, so there may be some benefit to learning from donor conceived adults who speak on this now, before the baby is born. Early disclosure is known to be better than late discovery.