Every year, thousands of babies are born to otherwise infertile women who opted to use donor eggs to conceive a child. 

Using an egg donor may be a good choice if you are a carrier of genetic disease or are 40-something and no longer producing healthy eggs of your own – but are otherwise healthy enough to have a safe pregnancy and birth experience. But is it really the right choice? Read on to find out!

Things to Consider

If you choose to use a donor’s eggs or embryos to get pregnant, you will have a 50 percent chance of carrying to term and giving birth. If you use frozen embryos, the success rate drops down to 30 percent.

It is important to know that approximately 40 percent of pregnancies resulting from this process using donor eggs lead to multiples. If you are considering this option, be prepared for the possibility of giving birth to twins or triplets!

Also keep in mind that low birth weights and birth defects have a higher occurrence rate for women who have undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) and similar high-tech fertility treatments.

How It Works

If you are receiving eggs from a donor, you will have to take medications (usually the hormones Lupron, estrogen and progesterone) and undergo close medical monitoring before and during the entire IVF process.

You can select donor eggs or embryos from an anonymous donor or a friend or family member. You can choose for your partner's sperm or a donor's sperm to be combined with your donor's eggs in a lab dish, which will fertilize her eggs into embryos. Two to four of these embryos will then be implanted into your uterus using a small catheter during the IVF Procedure. You can take a pregnancy test two to three weeks after the embryos have been implanted in your uterus.

Success Rate

Most fertility clinics will not accept you as a candidate for the egg donation procedure if you are over 50, since older women are not as likely to have safe pregnancies. If you rely on your fertility clinic to find your egg donor, you will typically get a medically-screened younger donor – between 21-29 years old. This may be why the success rate for donor-egg IVF cases is generally twice as high as regular IVF in older women who are not using donor eggs.

Pressure on Your Pocket

Undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) with donor eggs or embryos can be very expensive. The cost of an egg donor cycle can typically range from $25,000 - $40,000. This is more expensive than standard IVF using your own eggs.  If you use your own eggs, one cycle of IVF typically ranges from $10,000 - $17,000. IVF coverage is generally not provided by most health insurance carriers, so you should expect to cover the cost yourself.

Are you dreaming of becoming a parent, but are now past the prime age for child bearing? You are not alone. Many couples delay parenthood until their mid-30s or later and sometimes face the heartbreak of infertility and the challenge of undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments. Some couples enjoy success after a few fertility treatments, while others aren’t so fortunate.

Infertility Can Happen to Anyone

In their quest to have a baby, celebrity couple Giuliana and Bill Rancic underwent several cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments without success. They also endured a painful miscarriage. The television couple, who star in the Style Network’s “Giuliana & Bill,” allowed the cameras to follow them on their sometimes painful journey toward parenthood.

They were embarking on another round of fertility treatments when Giuliana was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although Giuliana’s cancer treatment was successful and she is now cancer-free, she must continue taking medications that would not be healthy for a developing fetus. What next?

How Surrogacy Worked for Them

Despite their obstacles, Giuliana and Bill were still determined to become parents. After considering all their options, they decided to try gestational surrogacy. This form of ART involved using his sperm and her egg to be fertilized into an embryo and implanted into a surrogate’s uterus. Success!  Their child is due in summer 2012. Surrogacy allowed Bill and Giuliana to be the biological parents of the child, but ensured a safe pregnancy and healthy baby.

Finding a Surrogate

There are agencies that can match couples to an appropriate surrogate, if this is the route they choose. Bill and Giuliana used an agency that was recommended by their IVF physician. Couples may choose either traditional surrogacy or gestational surrogacy, as Bill and Giuliana did.

Traditional surrogacy is usually an option for couples when the woman has no eggs or her eggs are unhealthy (i.e. from disease or medical treatment). In this case, the child can be produced by the male partner’s sperm and the surrogate’s egg. The surrogate becomes pregnant after the male partner’s sperm is used to fertilize her egg and produce an embryo that the surrogate will carry and deliver. The baby will be genetically linked to the male partner of the couple, and also to the surrogate. After the baby is born, the surrogate agrees to give up the baby to the couple as the legal parents.

Gestational surrogacy is the more popular form of surrogacy, and typically involves using an egg and a sperm from the couple. With this method, IVF treatment is used to retrieve eggs from the intended mother. In some cases, the intended mother’s eggs were already retrieved and stored from previous IVF treatments. These eggs are fertilized with the intended father’s sperm in the laboratory to produce embryos. Some of these embryos are then implanted into the uterus of a gestational surrogate. The impregnated surrogate carries the baby to term and delivers it, immediately releasing the infant to its biological parents at birth.

In addition to Giuliana and Bill Rancic, other celebrity couples who have opted to use gestational surrogacy include Sarah Jessica Parker and Mathew Broderick. In 2009, a gestational surrogate successfully delivered their biological twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha.

To learn more about surrogacy, or to find a fertility specialist near you, click here!

Infertility problems have caused a lot of heartbreak for television personalities Giuliana and Bill Rancic. After suffering through several failed in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments and a miscarriage, the celebrity couple is now expecting their first child together…via a gestational surrogate. What does that mean? The baby, due in late summer 2012, will be Bill and Giuliana’s genetic child. However, it is being carried to term by a surrogate mother to ensure a safe pregnancy and healthy baby.

The Rancics, who are currently starring in "Giuliana & Bill," their own reality show on the Style Network, have grappled with other health challenges as well. Giuliana was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, as she was undergoing another round of fertility treatments. Giuliana’s health scare, and her cancer treatment, sidelined their plans to get pregnant.

Bill and Giuliana explored other options for starting a family, including adoption. Bill explained that they chose to move forward with the surrogacy option as their “last stop,” and it worked! They found their gestational surrogate through an agency that was referred to them by their IVF doctor. The couple is thrilled to share their baby news after a rough journey to parenthood saying, “… if we can help others by sharing our story, then it's worth it."

Are you trying to get pregnant and worried you may be infertile? If you answered “yes,” you are among the hundreds of women in America who are concerned about infertility and conceiving a child. Women facing fertility problems today have many more options for treatment than in the past. From fertility drugs to acupuncture, there are many choices. It can be a challenge to make the choice that is right for you. To help you find the right approach for you, we offer a brief overview of some fertility treatments available.

Some Fertility Treatment Options:

Fertility medications

Fertility drugs are used to regulate your reproductive hormones over a period of three to six months. The success rate ranges from 20 to 60 percent, and the drugs can increase your likelihood of having twins or multiples. There are also some associated side effects (hot flashes, cramping, bloating, etc.)



Surgery

If you have any blockages in your fallopian tubes, scar tissue, ovarian cysts or other issues that may be preventing conception, surgery can help fix those problems.  The success rate ranges from 40 to 60 percent for endometriosis or scar tissue treatments. The success rate for fallopian tube clearance treatments ranges from 10 to 90 percent.



In vitro fertilization (IVF)

IVF is generally used with fertility drugs that stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs. These eggs are retrieved from the ovaries and placed together with sperm in a specially-prepared test tube until fertilization takes place. One to three embryos will be placed in the uterus after fertilization. The success rate for IVF ranges widely, from six to roughly 30 percent, depending upon the age of the woman receiving treatment. Women under age 35 have the best chances of conceiving with IVF or another assisted reproduction technology (ART) such as gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) or zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT).



Artificial insemination

Also known as intrauterine insemination (IUI), this procedure involves placing sperm directly into the uterus. This treatment is often used where there is a problem with cervical mucus or male infertility. Though lower cost than some of the other options, the success rate for IUI ranges from four to roughly 17 percent – not very high.



Other fertility treatment options to consider include alternative medicine modalities such as acupuncture and herbs, egg freezing and egg or embryo donation, sperm injection (ICSI) and surrogacy or gestational carriers.

Click here to find a fertility specialist and explore your options for fertility treatments.



Sources:

http://www.hfea.gov.uk/fertility.html

http://infertility.about.com/od/infertilitytreatments/a/basictreatments.htm

Infertility can be a difficult condition for many couples to overcome on their path to parenthood. There are a variety of medical treatments available that can help individuals become parents, like in-vitro fertilization and IUI. But many couples are interested in using more natural methods of alternative medicine, or even using a combination of western and eastern medical techniques to treat their infertility. Acupuncture is an effective, minimally invasive treatment that many have turned to in their struggle to become pregnant.

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese treatment that has been used to provide relief from an abundance of pain, illnesses and conditions. It involves the insertion of thin, sterile needles in specific points on the body to release blocked energy, which practitioners believe may manifest in disease and illness. By doing so, many have found relief from a variety of ailments, including infertility.

Simply relieving stress may be a good first step towards improving fertility, although acupuncture has also helped treat male infertility causes such as low sperm count and sperm DNA fragmentation and female infertility causes such as endometriosis, PCOS, low ovarian reserve and others. Those with unexplained causes of infertility may find success through acupuncture as well.

Acupuncture has successfully helped many couples improve fertility, but it is often used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization (IVF) or other assisted reproductive technologies (ART) to help boost results and improve chances of success as well. If you're experiencing infertility and would like to learn more about how acupuncture may be able to help, see a fertility doctor or practitioner of acupuncture in your area.