# Difference between 'egg donation' and 'embryo donation'



## greatgazza (May 27, 2010)

This may be a really stupid question, so sorry if it is but how are egg donation and embryo donation different/what does each of them involve?

GGx


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## Dominique (Dec 31, 2009)

It's all in the name really.  An egg is just that, a female egg coming from your (or the donor's) ovaries.  An embryo is an egg that has been fertilised and ready to implant to turn into a baby if you're lucky.
What you need depends on your circumstances really.
D.


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## suitcase of dreams (Oct 7, 2007)

That's right - essentially as a recipient you can choose to have a fresh donor egg (DE) cycle (egg donation) or a frozen embryo transfer (FET/embryo donation)

With a fresh cycle you will be matched with an egg donor, your cycles will be synchronised, the donor will go through the IVF stimming process and have her eggs collected whilst you prepare your lining etc. The eggs will then be fertilised with sperm (your partners or that of a chosen sperm donor if you have having what is known as 'double donation' - eggs and sperm) and the resulting embryos put back
You may or may not get some additional embryos to freeze so that you can try again with FET if the fresh cycle doesn't work, or you can try for a sibling!

The above is what happens if you have treatment abroad or you have an altruistic donor who is giving you all her eggs. In the UK egg share is much more common where the egg donor is undergoing IVF herself and in return for free treatment, gives the recipient half of the eggs collected. The process is pretty much the same but you get only half the total eggs collected and the donors tend (although not always) to be older as they are women undergoing IVF tx themselves


Embryo donation is much less common in the UK although I think it is occasionally available through some clinics - I think in this case the embryos would be ones which couples having had IVF have decided for whatever reason that they do not want to try to use themselves, so donate them to others to give them a chance to conceive. If you were looking into this you would need to think carefully about the implications in terms of siblings/half siblings etc

Abroad, embryo donation is slightly different. Most clinics have back up egg donors for all their fresh cycles in case a donor does not produce enough eggs or something goes wrong. Usually everything goes well, which means that the clinic is left with the eggs from the back up donor and no recipient for them. They will fertilise these eggs with sperm from their sperm bank to create embryos which are frozen. These are then available to people looking for FET/embryo donation. 

Success rates for FET tend to be lower than for a fresh cycle, and you will have less choice on the donor matching criteria than with a fresh cycle although they will still try to match key physical characteristics for you
FET is significantly cheaper than a fresh cycle

Hope this helps!
Suitcase
x


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## greatgazza (May 27, 2010)

thanks girls.

suity as always, very helpful, what i'm really wondering is what my next step is in terms of tx and whether i use my own eggs for a go and then if i switch to donor eggs what that involves.  

can you remember a rough idea of cost for oeivf and deivf at reprofit and fresh and frozen? and it would be using donor sperm  too as i'm single.  Also, with donor eggs is there a much longer wait?  Is it quite hard because of trying to match characteristics to oneself?  I see you've done both and wondered what kind of things i need to be thinking about to make my decision?

I'm waiting to be referred to St mary's but that's a whole other stress at the moment but regardless of that I'm thinking of doing another DIUI while i wait as i don't think i can bear to do nothing at all for weeks with time ticking away.  

Without thinking about that referral just for the moment did you ever have/consider PGD with your own eggs as i'm just finding out about what all this means right now and my head's spinning.  Also, i see from your BFP (which i'll say congrats about again as I know you were taking it one day at a time when we talked before) it was with FET, was that your only go with FET and your others were fresh?

I just don't know who to get advice from on this as since going to reprofit i don't have a consultant of any description over here to discuss things with and feel completely out on a limb and really struggling to hold it together right now and know what the hell to do next.

Emotional time all round, was the first anniversay of my mum's death yesterday and my brother told me his wife was pregnant this morning, i could hardly speak and trying not to cry all day, also huge stress trying to get referred to st marys before their cut off which i found out yesterday is age 42 and i'm 42 on 20th september so don't know if i'll be able to sort it out and get in there.

just feel like my head's going to explode and i can't cope with it all.

don't know if i'm making much sense
GG x


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## suitcase of dreams (Oct 7, 2007)

PM'ing you GG


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