# CMV and egg-sharing



## Cowshedbythesea (May 23, 2015)

Hi all, 

Hoping someone can help as I'm a little freaked out. 

Recently underwent the tests for egg sharing and I phoned to see if the results were in. No nurses or consultants were available, so the receptionist told me that she needed a consultant to speak to me about one of my test results, but they weren't back until after the New Year. 

She said that I'd tested positive for CMV (which I'd never even heard of) but she didn't know if I had it now or if I'd had it in the past. She also mentioned that about half the population have had it and don't even know. 

Is this something I need to be worried about? Does this mean I now can't egg share? Going out of my mind waiting for the consultant to return.


----------



## Karmas (Aug 18, 2014)

Its part of the herpes family its a virus you probably would never have know you had. I think it depends on the clinic and the recipient i found this on a different board 


CMV is a common viral infection, most often seen in children, causing a flu-like illness. 

Transmission of CMV occurs from person to person and requires close contact. Although not highly contagious it can be secreted in the bodily fluids of a CMV positive person. It can be found in urine, saliva, blood, tears, semen and breast milk. 

Congenital (from birth) infection of CMV happens sometimes when a pregnant woman is infected with CMV for the first time. As she has no immunity to CMV, the virus can cross the placenta to infect her baby. Nine out of ten babies infected in this way will not suffer complications and will develop normally. The small number of babies that do develop CMV related complications usually survive, however they may suffer hearing loss, vision impairment & varying degrees of mental retardation. 

For sperm donation CARE always match a CMV negative recipient with a CMV negative donor. This is because semen contains lots of white blood cells and so there would be a risk of a CMV negative recipient contracting CMV. 

With egg/embryo donors there is no evidence that CMV could be transmitted with the egg/embryo because, in the lab the embryologists wash the eggs and strip away the surrounding cells. Only he embryos (and no white blood cells) are transferred into the recipient. This means that the risk of passing on CMV through egg/embryo donation is negligible. 

Even when CMV negative donors are matched with CMV negative recipients they are still vulnerable to CMV infection from the community or from a CMV positive partner. There is no difference in pregnancy rates between CMV neg recipients using CMV neg donors & CMV neg recipients that use CMV positive donors. 

On this basis CARE policy is that CMV negative egg/embryo recipients can be matched to a CMV positive egg/embryo donor with informed consent. 

Hope that helps


----------



## pollita (Feb 23, 2011)

Like Karmas says, it's common and nothing to be worried about - just requires extra careful matching to be on the safe side. If you had children naturally with a male partner you'd never know if he was + or - unless you specially got tested!


----------



## Lilly83 (Jan 19, 2012)

Your recipient will be given a choice to accept you knowing your cmv status, like already said it's more of an issue for sperm donation 

I was happy to take a cmv positive donor as a donor recipient and opted out of having my cmv status checked 

You will still be able to egg share they will match you to a cmv pos lady or someone who is happy with a cmv positive sharer 

God luck! 

L x


----------



## Cowshedbythesea (May 23, 2015)

Thank you all so much, that's really put my mind at ease!


----------

