Can Number of Eggs be Assured after Egg Retrieval?

The decision to get help from an egg donor to have a baby is one of the most important choices intended parents will ever make. It is a vital phase in the IVF procedure, when they agree to get eggs from a donor. This usually happens when an intended parent experiences failures in the IVF cycles due to lower quality eggs. Instead of investing more money and time in the new attempts, they usually go for an egg donor to complete their IVF cycle successfully. There are a million questions in the intended parent’s mind while finalizing the selection of an egg donor. People from different backgrounds have different concerns regarding the selection of the donor. Couples undergoing IVF treatment often ask us whether the number of eggs is assured after doing the retrieval. Well, this article is for all those couples undergoing egg donation and are curious to know more about this.

Egg Retrieval

The hormone treatment during IVF stimulates the ovaries to produces more eggs. The next procedure is to retrieve those eggs. A injection of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone is given to the Egg Donor and after a duration of 36 hours, the retrieval surgery is executed. The follicles are prepared to ovulate. During ovulation, the follicle gets ruptured and the egg is removed from the follicular sac. This is when the eggs are ready to be fertilized.

The surgeon introduces a device into the vagina of the egg donor to retrieve the eggs. The device pushes a needle through the vaginal wall and gets into the ovary. The entire procedure is executed by ultrasound technology. The needle inserted inside the ovary operates on each of the follicles. Suction is applied externally to pull out the follicular fluid as the surgeon places the needle inside the follicle. The suction tube brings out the follicular fluid into a test tube. The oocytes float within the fluid and get extracted out of the follicles by this procedure.

The procedure generally takes about 30 minutes and is an outpatient operation. This means that the egg donor can go home shortly after the egg retrieval. This minor surgery does not require the egg donor to remain at the clinic for more than a few hours. However, the surgical procedure is executed under the effect of anaesthesia, something that always has potential risks. The egg donor is previously told about the entire procedure which enables them to prepare for it. There are workshops and seminars organized for the egg donors to learn about the procedure and to make it easier for them.

Egg donation is a common service these days and many of women donate eggs when they are young. These women are much aware and educated on the subject and offer this service after a lot of knowledge and understanding about it. IVF clinics invest good amount of time in arranging various seminars and workshops to create awareness amongst the aspiring parents as well as egg donors to know the correct information related to egg donation.

Can Number of Eggs be Assured after Retrieval?

A common query among intended parents is whether there is a chance to assure the number of eggs retrieved from the donor. As a matter of fact, there is no guarantee of the number of eggs. IVF consultants execute preliminary screenings to assure the maximum chances of assigning an apt egg donor with high potentials to produce a good number of eggs.

The egg donors are professionally connected to the intended parents for the service they are rendering. They are all professionals and are in this field after a thorough education process containing all the facts and figures related to it. Intended parents also expect a lot from the egg donors as they invest in their services. They are under monetary obligation with the donor and also have invested a good amount of their time in deciding on which egg donor to finally go with. This is the reason why egg donors are taken through hormonal medications that stimulates their ovaries and derives the best quality eggs in multiple numbers.

It is very important to evaluate the Fertility Potential of an egg donor and ascertain her ovarian response in IVF. AMH (Anti-Mullerian Hormone) test is one vital step to before choosing an egg donor. If the Follicle count in such test is found to be less than 15 in both ovaries, the person is not accepted as a donor. The potential donor is also checked for cysts, since cysts often prevent the follicles to grow. The ovary stimulation is monitored closely to record how the donor responds to it. In case the tests are not satisfactory, the process is terminated. The parents are asked to choose new egg donor instead of wasting money on the one we have tested. This results in controlling unnecessary money wasting on IVF and getting frustrated by not receiving desired results.

The serum AMH levels of the egg donors correlate with the number of early antral follicles. Hence, this test is useful for predicting the ovarian response of the egg donors in an IVF cycle. Donors with low AMH levels are likely to be poor ovarian responders and are hence discarded from the list. The ovarian ageing is also measured in order to confirm the chance of a diminished ovarian reserve in a donor.

Reduced baseline serum of AMH concentrations is not a good indication. Egg donors with poor ovarian reserve have low levels of AMH as they might have entered the menopause. All reputed IVF clinics work with the best egg donors that all have high levels of AMH. New Life’s donors are all screened and finalized after a thorough procedure of medical evaluation. Our database includes egg donors from all over the world. They are based in different locations around the globe. Intended parents can go through the data and meet some of them in person to evaluate and finalize someone for their IVF cycle. The whole procedure is done as per contract and with all ethics maintained. Egg donors follow guidelines that tends to make them more professional towards their service. The intended parents are also bound to follow certain ethics and rules related to such donation. All of this make the process smooth and flawless.

The current and potential fertility of an egg donor can be calculated by analysing her AMH levels. AMH levels usually decline with age. In case there is a noticeable decline in the donors AMH level, it is usually considered to be decreased ovarian reserve, on premature menopause. Donors with higher levels of AMH have bigger capacity and are more fertile than others. This helps the IVF consultants determine and confirm the egg donor for the IVF cycle. This also helps in determining whether follicle stimulating drugs or other egg preservation medicines would work satisfactorily on the egg donor or not.