What is embryo donation?

Embryo donation is a process for people who have gone through an IVF treatment where, after having achieved pregnancy, they can donate their excess embryos to another couple who are having trouble conceiving. In some cases of embryo donation, both donor eggs and donor sperm are used to create the donated embryos.

Who can be a embryo donor?

  • Couples with successful assisted conception treatment who have already completed their family and have surplus embryo(s) in storage can consider donating their embryos.
  • Couples who have signed the consent forms after having counseling about donating their excess frozen embryo(s).
  • The chronological age for men should be under 50 and under 37 for women.
  • Couples who have no hereditary conditions in the family and no history of infectious and genetic disease.
ivf refund couple

Screening tests done for sperm donors

  • The embryo donors have to provide the details of their medical histories and undergo screening tests to make sure there are no infections that can be passed on to the recipient and also that there are no known underlying medical conditions that may affect the child(ren).
  • Both individuals in the couple are tested for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Chlamydia, Syphilis, Gonorrhoea, HIV and Cytomegalovirus(CMV).
  • Further testing is done for blood group, full blood count, chromosome analysis, cystic fibrosis treatment, electrophoresis and Human T cell Lymphotropic Viruses(HTLV 1 and 2).

Embryo donation FAQs

The medical, surgical, reproductive and mental histories of the recipient are thoroughly reviewed.

Laboratory tests are carried out on the recipient including antibody screening, blood type, thyroid functions and testing for diseases like Cytomegalovirus(CMV), HIV, Syphilis, Gonorrhoea, Chlamydia, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.

The recipient and their partner have to receive implications counseling by a fertility expert.

A more thorough assessment has to be done of the recipient if their age is over 45 years. This includes evaluation of heart, liver and kidney functions and the risk of pregnancy related diseases. They may also be referred to pre-conception clinic run by an obstetric expert.

Donor profiles are shared with patients considering embryo donation. These profiles include information on physical characteristics, education, career, ethnicity and blood group.

For IVF treatment with embryo donation the process is the same as going through Frozen Embryo Transfer other than the screening tests and counseling which are an essential part of the embryo donation program before the treatment starts.

Oestrogen and progesterone hormones are used to prepare the endometrium of the recipient before the embryo transfer can take place. Additional medications may be prescribed based on individual cases to assist successful embryo implantation and/ or to reduce risk of pregnancy related diseases or miscarriage.

Various factors affect the success rates of embryo donations. Some of these are quality of donor eggs, quality of embryo(s) when transferring, quality of sperm, the donor’s age and the recipient’s obstetric, medical and fertility histories.

Implications counseling by our expert counselor is recommended for both embryo donor and embryo recipients to discuss psychological issues regarding the decision to donate and receive embryos, respectively.

This counseling will focus on the prospect of their own child(ren) having siblings in a different family and the ethical, legal and emotional aspects of embryo donation.

The recipients will have the chance to talk about releasing information of the donor and possible future contact of their child(ren) conceived through embryo donation with the donor.

The recipient should seek legal advice from a family law firm with expertise in assisted conception based on the legislature of the country where the embryo donation treatment is taking place.

The recipient accepts full responsibility of the transferred embryo(s) and their resulting child(ren) in countries where there is little legal precedent on embryo donation.

The responsibility of all legal aspects of a child born using embryo transfer as well as the pregnancy lies with the recipient.

The recipient should release the IVF clinic and fertility professionals involved in the treatment from any and all liabilities of any complications that may arise through embryo transfer.