Egg donation and IVF – get your questions answered

Do you have age limit for IVF or egg donation programs?

Legally, there is no age limit for women that wish to undergo IVF or egg donation procedure. But there are natural health limits associated with age that prevent women from certain programs. Let’s take significant lowering of the AMH level after 40 as an example — this natural process makes the IVF program with own eggs rather impossible than possible.

What are indications for using donor eggs?

According to the Order of Ministry of Healthcare #787 from 09.09.13 “About arrangements for the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Ukraine” there are following indication for using donor eggs:

  • acquired or congenital, determined by natural menopause absence of oocytes
  • risk of hereditary conditions
  • repeated unsuccessful IVF attempts, considering that embryos or/and oocytes were of a poor quality, and insufficient ovarian reaction on controlled stimulation
What if my husband/partner can’t donate his sperm for my IVF/egg donation program?

If the sperm can’t be retrieved even surgically, you will be offered to use the services of a sperm donor.

My husband/partner had vasectomy few years ago — do we qualify for IVF/egg donation program?

Sometimes after vasectomy men undergo the reversal surgery procedure, it happens that the procedure does not restore sperm quality. There are cases when men do not want to reverse vasectomy — in that case we would offer to opt for TESA/TESE/PESA procedure.

Is the egg retrieval procedure painful?

The egg retrieval is a minimally invasive procedure — oocytes are aspirated from the follicles through the needle connected to a suction device under the transvaginal ultrasound control and with light intravenous sedation. You will not feel anything during the procedure.

Is the embryo transfer painful?

Normally, no sedation is needed for the embryo transfer. The procedure is quite quick and usually painless. You may experience some discomfort.

What will you do with the embryos/eggs left after the embryo transfer?

All embryos/oocytes left after the procedure may be either cryopreserved, or donated to other infertile patients, or destroyed — the decision will be yours.

My doctor says that we need to use donor eggs, but we would like to try one last time with my own eggs — do you have combined program?

This is a quite common situation and we always recommend discussing it with the fertility specialist during your initial consultation. If the doctor thinks that you may be stimulated, we may offer you the program that combines one try of self-stimulation, one try of using donor eggs, and 3 embryo transfers including cryopreservation and storage of eggs/sperm/embryos. You may read more information here.

What are contraindications for IVF?

According to the Order of Ministry of Healthcare #787 from 09.09.13 “About arrangements for the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Ukraine” there are following contraindication for IVF:

  • medical conditions and mental disorders that are contraindications for pregnancy and childbirth
  • the body of uterus is less than 35 mm lengthwise
  • acute inflammatory diseases of any localization at the beginning of the ART treatment program
  • congenital malformations or acquired deformities of the uterine cavity, which do not allow implantation of the embryo(s) and pregnancy
  • benign tumors of the uterus that deform the uterine cavity and/or require surgical treatment
  • malignant neoplasms of any localization (it is allowed to obtain gametes in order to preserve the reproductive potential)
Is PGD/PGS included into program?

PGD for 5 chromosomes is included into programs — but you may choose PGD for 9 or 24 chromosomes for additional payment. You may find detailed information here.

Do you do Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for 24 chromosomes?

Yes, we do NGS, but it will cost you additionally.

I have embryos already — do you have frozen embryo transfer program?

Either you have the embryos left from the previous procedure with us, or you wish to ship your embryos from another clinic/country — we may offer you the package just for embryo transfer that will include thawing of your embryos, preparation of endometrium, transfer of prepared embryos into the uterine cavity.