How are eggs selected?
Each potential donor first undergoes a so-called “Ferticheck”examination to determine her health, status and the quality of her eggs. Our volunteer donors are required to comply with stringent requirements and regularly report for health check-ups.
It is essential that donors have no infectious or hereditary diseases, while integrity and fertility must also be demonstrated. The donor’s identity will not be revealed. Nor will the donor be informed of the identity of the recipient(s) of her egg(s).
The donation procedure
Some 10 to 12 eggs are obtained that, during a so-called vitrification process, are shock-frozen within split seconds to a temperature of -197 °C. It has since been medically established that the freezing of eggs has little or no effect on their quality.
What criteria apply to the selection of donors?
Here the principle of phenotypic similarity applies. In other words, a donor should look similar to the recipient and this means they should thus have similar genes. So a donor should have the same eye colour, skin tone, hair colour, body size and weight as the recipient. Other important criteria are the level of educational qualifications and special abilities. The blood groups of the recipient partners are determined to ensure that this family characteristic can be complied with.
What are the potential risks for a donor?
The stimulation phase is normally well tolerated. The growth of the follicles in the ovaries may cause a certain amount of discomfort. With the use of ultrabrief anaesthesia, the surgical procedure itself is very low risk. Following the 8,400 extractions performed so far at our institute, there were two cases of local inflammation and one case of blood in the urine caused by a needlestick injury of the urinary bladder.
The onset of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), of which there is a particular risk if the donor becomes pregnant during the ongoing procedure, can be extensively excluded by means of close monitoring. Our team of counsellors are available at all times to provide support should psychological problems arise.
Information
For more information, do not hesitate to contact us during our office hours by telephone on +43 (0) 3136 55 111.
