This treatment is used when a woman’s ovaries have stopped working or have reduced function due to going into menopause early; undergoing chemotherapy/radiotherapy, or for women who have not responded to medication while undergoing IVF themselves. Donated eggs come from in most cases anonymous women (Portugal, the UK and Denmark provide eggs from identity-released egg donors) who must have undergone a series of medical tests, and an assessment of their medical history and have given voluntary consent to undergo this procedure. They are normally no more than 30 years of age, and our preference is that a donor has proven fertility as in either has a child themselves or has donated successfully previously. The number of embryos that can be replaced depends on the country you are having the treatment done in but normally, no more than 1 or 2 embryos are recommended.

Coordinating egg donation treatment has been my main skill since being asked to set up a program in Harley Street in 1993, at Bart’s Hospital in 1997 and at a clinic in Marbella when we moved to Spain in 2004. If I was going on Mastermind, I guess this would be my specialist subject!

There is a lot to consider with this treatment and I did a series of blog posts in 2022 which are still relevant today so do take a look: https://www.ivftablog.com/blog/category/egg-donation-series