# minimum number of eggs guarantee ?



## pixie g (Jun 20, 2009)

Hi there ladies

I'm posting this query on both the egg share and egg donor boards...

I'm trying to find our the policies of other clinics around the UK about 'minimum number of eggs' that are guaranteed for egg donor recipients. We recently paid £5k for just 2 eggs as the other 4 were immature, and therefore incapable of ever fertilising. (our donor also had the same result - 6 eggs, only 2 mature)

Has anyone come across this issue with their clinic ? If so, what are the minimum number of eggs 'guaranteed', and is there any mention of how the clinic would deal with immature eggs ?

I understand that immature eggs can be produced by seemingly 'mature' follicles, but as a paying recipient, feel that it's unfair that we had no chance of fertilisation of the majority of eggs that we were given.

We want to go back to the same clinic for our next cycle, but want to talk to them about the situation that we were put in first.

thanks

gill


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## Skybreeze (Apr 25, 2007)

Hi Pixie

I have egg share twice (as a donor) and the minimum amount of eggs is 4... So the donor has to produce at least 8 eggs... If less then there is a choice of her donating all to the recipient or keeping the all herself. I think that is the policy for most clinics. 

I have eggs shared at 2 clinic, latest being the Lister, They collect all the eggs and the divid them equally (if there is a odd number the extra 1 goes to the donor) They also divid them to the amount of mature eggs so both recipient and donor have the same. So in your case it works out 'fair'.

Unfortunatly when you egg share it is a chance you take... In my first cycle I had 15 eggs, out of my 8 I kept.... 6 were mature same was for my recipient. Second time I got 16 egg and all were mature. But then again my first cycle of IVF was on my own and 3 out of 7 eggs were mature?! 

Good luck with your next cycle
Natalie xxx


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## pixie g (Jun 20, 2009)

Hi Natalie

My clinic seem to have had the same policy as yourselves (ie min 4), and absolutely agree that with every cycle there's a lot given over to chance / luck. 

g


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## Skybreeze (Apr 25, 2007)

I'm afarid its true Pixie, Luck has ALOT to answer for I think! 
xxx


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## watn1 (Mar 14, 2008)

Hi there,

Min at my clinic was 8 also.. i.e 4 each. _However_ These were just divided at the time of being taken. there was no seeing how many were mature first. So in theory I could of got all the immature one's and my receiptant got all the mature one's & vice versa.. However, There was a policy in place for the receiptant for a 'guaranteed mature number' i.e a % and if this was not met they would get another cycle. To be honest with such a guarantee in place I doubt my clinic rarley failed to achieve this percentage which was one of my concerns, But I was assured it was all done equal. My clinic also gave the odd egg in favour to the receiptant. I got 25 eggs, 12 for me 13 for the other couple. 10 of mine were mature for ICSI. I was never told how well the others did. The same rules applied that if I produced less then 8 I could either give them all away and have my own cycle or keep them all and not eggshare again.

I specified that I wanted my receiptant to get at least 5 eggs and if I got only the required 8 then I still wanted them to have them all, This was mainly because we were using sperm from a SSR and our fertilisation rate was only ever going to be 50% so realistically I needed 5 myself just to get 2/3. My clinic were more then happy with this as they could not assess DP sperm before hand it was all just frozen immature so we didn't even know if there would be any in there suitable for treatment. If the above would of occured I was to eggshare again but didn't have to pay again for our ICSI ontop.

Wishing you luck in your next cycle.xx


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## pixie g (Jun 20, 2009)

thanks for the info watn1

It's that 'mature egg guarantee' that I want to talk to our clinic about. Absolutely accept that we could have had 4 eggs as the min, but considering we were paying for both our cycle and our donors, I feel as if we've been taken advantage of by receiving only 2 eggs that ever had any hope of fertilisation.

If all eggs were mature but then failed to fertilise, that'd be a different issue, as WE would have had a hand in that (ie DH's sperm)...but for me, I feel as if immature eggs are the same as too few follicle numbers - there should be the option of cancellation / additional cycle.

Your clinic seem to haeva very fair way of doing things. I hope ours will too.

g
x


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## fuzzier (Oct 31, 2005)

Hi Pixie, i dont think clinics can garauntee a minimum number of mature eggs, i may be wrong. At the clinic i went to  i had to produce a minimum of 6 eggs in order to be able to share (i donated) there was never any mention of a garauntee of mature eggs. I was very lucky and produced 22 eggs so that was 11 each for my recipient and myself. I'm not sure how they go about sharing them out but i think they try to be as far as possible to both donor and recipient. 

Kay


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## olive22 (Oct 12, 2006)

Hi Pixie

I am about to start egg sharing as a donor. I asked the question about grading eggs and how they divide them up, the consultant told me that they cant be graded and they just divide them in half and its down to 'lady luck' who gets what. I am very interested that other clinics look at mature or not and I will ask the question again.

Olive22


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