Our Donors
Depending on your fertility needs, you may require an egg or sperm from a third party. For this part, the Fertility Clinic will provide you with a selection of donors from its own donor database. Each donor is carefully selected and tested for diseases and genetically related anomalies.
Egg Donation
Selecting an Egg Donor is one of the most emotional parts of your journey to parenthood. You want to make sure you are giving your baby the best start in life possible. Part of that may mean choosing a suitable Donor that meets your established needs and criteria as well.
Many parents-to-be emphasize the importance of previous donation history, while others are more concerned with the Donor’s education level, physical appearance, ethnicity and age. To make the selection easier and more efficient, intended parent will have access to the database of Donor profiles, which give detailed information about the Donor’s donation history, family, medical history, education, current occupation and more.
Egg Donor Screening
Once you have been granted access to the database, you will be able to review all of our available Egg Donors to choose the one that best fits the needs of your family. From there, we will approve your candidate, sign contract agreements and move forward with necessary screening, which includes the following:
- Anti Mullerian Hormone (AMH)
- Blood Group and Rhesus (In case an emergency blood transfusion is required)
- Complete Blood Count/Hemoglobin (CBC/hb)
- Cytomegalovirus
- Estradiol Level (Measured on day 2 or 3 of monthly cycle)
- Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH/CD2-4 Tests for ovarian reserve, Donors must be measured on days 2 – 4 of menses)
- Hepatitis B (HbsAg)
- Hepatitis C (HCV)
- Herpes Virus
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
- Luteinizing Hormone (LH/CD2-4 Donor must be measured on days 2 – 4 of menses)
- Pelvic Ultrasound for Antral Follicle Count (Days 3 – 5 of menses)
- Prolactin (Measures the level of the hormone prolactin produced by the pituitary gland. High levels can indicate infertility)
- Syphillis (VDRL)
- Thyroid Stimulating Hormone/Thyroid Function Test (TSH)
- Vaginal Swab Tests for Chlamydia (to rule out any infection that may flare up during or after retrieval)
Egg Donor Stimulation
This screening is standard, but intended parents are welcome to request additional screening requirements at their own expense. Once your Egg Donor successfully completes all necessary screening and they are approved to join your program, we will begin stimulation matching with your preferred calendar dates. If, for any reason, the Donor fails to pass the screening, you will be permitted to choose another Donor from our database. We will perform this same screening for the new Donor without any additional incurred costs to you, the intended parent.
For the stimulation we use short antagonist protocols that may last anywhere from 10 to 14 days, depending on follicle growth. Stimulation injections used include: Gonal F, Menopure, Cetrotyde and Ovitrel as a final ovulation trigger. During this process, and every step of the way, we make sure our Donors are safe, comfortable and respected.
ISC’s Egg Donors
Because we value each of the Egg Donors and their willingness to gift the miracle of life to our intended parents, our different fertility clinics strive to maintain a positive and friendly environment that nurtures and protects each party involved. The Donors are treated with the utmost respect at all times, every step of the process. Every Donor is compensated transparently as a way to show we value them and their time.
Sperm Donation
The sperm will either come from the Intended Father or from an anonymous donor. Sperm donor profiles although they are anonymous still include a range of detailed options. Aside from characteristics such as height, weight, blood type, ethnicity, hair and eye color, profiles also include baby photos (if available), family history, hobbies, voice type, personality, and education.
All our sperm donors are selected based on an exhaustive screening process. This process evaluates their semen quality and screens their sperm for hereditary, genetic, and contagious diseases. No matter which sperm donor you choose, you are guaranteed a donor of the highest quality. They are rigorously screened by the clinics and the tests include psychological as well as physical. By law most countries in Europe will test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, and syphilis. But many will go beyond this and test for many more blood and genetic diseases. As technology develops, more and more genetic conditions are now being screened than ever before.
Many overseas fertility clinics will by default choose ICSI with donor sperm. Intracytoplasmic sperm Injection (ICSI) is where one spermatozoa is injected into the mature egg by passing the need for the sperm to penetrate the zona pellucida of the egg. Some sperm, even healthy sperm, cannot overcome this last hurdle of fertilization and that is where ICSI can help. But is it required with proven donors? It is used by overseas clinics in case there is a problem with normal fertilization. Usually there should be no problem with normal healthy eggs and sperm but nature is not predictable.
Important Information for the Intended Parents
On extremely rare occasions, a Donor may not respond well to stimulation. If her follicles do not grow ideally to achieve a successful pregnancy, we will inform you immediately to discuss ending the stimulation with that Donor. Do not let this deter you from making your dream of parenthood a reality. Also its important to know, that number of eggs cannot be guaranteed and even if the egg donor has previous good donation history this is still not the assurance that her following donation would have the same results.
Stimulation terminations or empty follicles are particularly rare, with less than one case a year. We only keep you informed about all possibilities because, at ISC, we strongly believe in establishing realistic expectations to keep your journey as smooth and stress-free as possible. We will keep you informed during every step of your journey with potential scenarios and your opportunities in your program to make your dream a reality.