# Donor Egg - Experiences Abroad? Recommendations in UK/ Ireland?



## qatar1 (Jan 7, 2011)

Hi Hope you can help. We have had 2 failed IVF's with Origin in Belfast. 1 failed IVF with the Royal in Belfast. We tried Institute Marques in Barcelona with Donor Egg ICSI/FISH/PGD. Had a success with twin pregnancy but we lost one of the boys Sean 7 months in. We know we are blessed with Thomas but we tried donor egg again with Institute Marques in the summer past. Out of 14 eggs retrieved and fertilised only one was sufficient quality to be transferred. We weren't at all happy with Institute Marques last time round the attitude on the day of the transfer was kind of heigh ho there's a problem with the quality of the sperm something we had tried to raise on a number of occasions biut all correspondence before transfer day was done on email or via their medical adviser (not a qualified doctor or consultant). We have decided to try one last time and are looking for (based on your own experiences) a clinic in the UK / Ireland  or abroad where you have been impressed with the thoroughness of analysis particularly of the sperm / overall care. Whether you have made the call to go with both donor egg and sperm and which clinic you would recommend. Thanks Q


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## suitcase of dreams (Oct 7, 2007)

Hi there,

Hmm, this is a tricky one as I guess no clinic can 'guarantee' success on the day. 
I used Reprofit in the Czech Republic for donor eggs and sperm (I'm single so there was never a question of using DH's sperm in my case)
I had a fresh DE cycle which resulted in 6 embryos, 2 put back, 3 frozen - that was BFN. I then went back for FET with 2 of the 3 frozen ones and am now pregnant with twins. 
I'm not aware that they do any particular analysis or testing on the sperm over and above other clinics, but I'm pretty sure they guarantee 2 high quality embyros for transfer and I know they have back up egg donors on hand for every cycle in case there are problems with the egg donor (and I assume this also goes for problems with fertilisation)
I was very happy with them, but as always, there are people who have had less satisfactory experiences - it's always going to be a very personal thing and depends to a large degree on whether you get your BFP or not...although I would still have recommended the clinic if I had not since I don't think it would have been any fault of their own (I have immune issues and many failed attempts so am not an 'easy' customer!)
With Reprofit the majority of communication is also via email of course, but it is always with the consultant/doctor himself (or herself) and not with a co-ordinator or assistant. 

I haven't tried other clinics so I can't compare. I think your best bet might be to shortlist a few and then read through the relevant threads on here to get a feel for the level of treatment/care and how people feel about them. I think Serum in Athens is often well spoken of, so that might be one to look into. The US clinics also tend to get postive feedback but can be very expensive and of course travel costs are that much higher when going to the US too

CRM in London is well thought of if you want to stay in the UK. Waiting lists are ca 9mths for donor eggs (similar to Reprofit in fact). They don't have a sperm bank so you have to arrange to import sperm from Xytex in the US - CRM will help with this and Xytex are reported to have excellent quality sperm (CRM refuse to use other sperm banks as they are not happy with the quality)

Hope this has helped, am sure others will be along with opinions and experiences soon
Best of luck
Suitcase
x


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## Wraakgodin (Jun 17, 2006)

Welcome to FF, Qatar!! This is a great website for support, information, laughter and friendship, it has kept me (relatively!) sane though all my treatment. I don't know how I would have coped without the lovely people here. Have a good look round the site, post in whatever section you want and make yourself at home. There are so many sections here with a huge amount of information, so whatever you are going through there will be someone here to help you.

Sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience last time. Suitcase has given you some great advice, and I can't add anything, but I can point you in the direction of a few parts of the forum that may be of interest.

Donor sperm/eggs ~ CLICK HERE. I am sure the lovely members there will be able to give you their personal experiences of the various clinics.

Also, we have boards for individual areas of the UK and abroad, these are found via the main forum menu. Once you find a clinic that you might be interested in you could look on the relevant section and see what others have to say. They can not only give you advice on the clinic and the consultants, but also on travel, hotels, things to do in while you are over there etc.

The What Every New Member Needs To Know (includes a list of common abbreviations) thread will give you some info on how to navigate the site ~   CLICK HERE

We also have a newbie night in the chat room every Wednesday where you can meet other new members and a few more experienced (I won't use the term "old"!) members will be there to answer any questions you have about the site. CLICK HERE FOR INFO ON NEWBIE CHAT

Please feel free to ask more questions here, or on any other part of the site, there will be wonderful helpful people there to give you lots of support, information and cyber hugs if you need it. We go through all the highs and lows of treatment together.

Good luck        

Sue


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## Jo Macmillan (Mar 19, 2007)

Hi quatar,

I had 2 failed IVF's with my own eggs (poor ovarian reserve) and 1 DE cycle at CRM London which was successful (I am 14 weeks pregnant.)

I can't fault the treatment I received from CRM. I wanted DE in the UK rather than abroad as I wasn't entirely comfortable with using a totally anonymous donor who could never be traced. 

I was also concerned about communication issues which I'd picked up on from some clinics abroad. True, this can be a concern with uK clinics, but I think it can be exacerbated when you throw language barriers into the mix too. CRM were excellent with communication.

I can't really comment on sperm analysis, as my DP's sperm has always been top notch. But I was very impressed with their lab and embryologists who are first class. I had 2 blastocysts transferred and the embryologist told me she thought one would implant, but that the other was weaker and may not, so twins were unlikely. She was spot on - both implanted to begin with then I lost one at about 6 weeks.

A difference between UK and abroad of course is that CRM do egg share, which means you may get less eggs as they are shared between you and the donor (although I was very lucky and got 16 eggs as my donor produced 33, but that's quite rare!) And, very importantly, CRM DO NOT guarantee that you will get 2 good embryos put back, so you are taking a risk, and they ask you to sign a form accepting this risk.

Good luck with whatever you decide,
Jo x


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