Third Party Reproduction

As women wait longer to begin their families, more and more individuals and couples are turning to donor eggs to help.  Although this is the most common reason that donor eggs are used, there are many other reasons.  The following are situations in which donor eggs can result in successful pregnancies:

• Women unable to conceive using their own eggs due to age or egg quality (that have not undergone natural menopause, usually age 51)
• Women with chromosomal mutations or genetic diseases that they do not wish to pass to their offspring
• Women with premature ovarian failure
• Individuals who need eggs prior to a gestational surrogacy cycle
  

Egg donors may be either known (a family member or friend of the woman desiring a pregnancy), or anonymous (a volunteer screened by our staff).  The majority of egg donor cycles performed at Lane Fertility Institute are anonymous egg donors from our internal egg donor pool (Family First Donor Program)

Our egg donor program was developed as a direct means of controlling quality and costs for the recipient couple.  Our egg donors are between the ages of 20-33.  Before being accepted by a recipient couple, egg donors are screened by Lane Fertility Institute for the following:

• medical history and physical examination
• pelvic ultrasound and antral follicle count
• testing for infectious diseases per FDA guidelines
• screening for inheritable diseases through family health questionnaire, and blood work when applicable
• psychological evaluation including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, cognitive evaluation,  and interview with our contracted psychologist.
  

Once selected by a recipient, the egg donor must use fertility drugs to stimulate the development of multiple mature eggs.  During the same time frame,  the recipient woman takes estrogen and progesterone to prepare her uterus for embryos obtained through egg donation. Ninety percent of our egg donor cycles involve an anonymous egg donor.   Our donor egg IVF pregnancy rate has consistently ranged between 67-70% per treatment cycle over the past few years. Our cumulative donor egg pregnancy rates for fresh and frozen embryos have remained over 95% since our program began in 2005. The sperm of the husband, partner, or sperm donor is used to fertilize the eggs.

Typically, egg donor cycles will produce a large number of high quality embryos, which allows the possibility of freezing some for future use.   The approximate cost of donor egg IVF in our program with donor work-up, medications, and an anonymous egg donor cycle is approximately $28,500.00.

For more information on the donor egg program, please contact Lane Fertility Institute at 415-893-0391.

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Interested in Becoming an Egg Donor?

Please contact us at 415-893-0391 or click here. 

Deciding to use a gestational surrogate is a big decision.  Because surrogacy is used less often than other forms of fertility treatment, it is likely that you will have heard less about the process.  Frequently couples find the process challenging because the search for information about the medical, legal and psychological aspects of this process is so difficult.  Here we offer some general information on the process of gestational surrogacy.  Please use this as a starting point, and contact Lane Fertility Institute for more specific information if this seems like the right choice for you.

Since approximately 1985, thousands of families have been created through the use of gestational surrogacy.   More recently, the publicity surrounding celebrities utilizing third party reproduction has generated more talk about infertility in general, as well as the idea of surrogacy. Celebrities such as Joan Lunden, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Angela Bassett have publicly discussed their struggles with fertility and their choices to utilize a surrogate in building their families.

At Lane Fertility Institute, we work with gestational surrogates who carry a child conceived of the egg and sperm of two other individuals.  Specifically, the sperm of the intended father or a sperm donor, as well as the egg from the intended mom or an egg donor are fertilized and transferred, via in vitro fertilization, into the gestational surrogate.  In the state of California, intended parents are able to have their name put on their child’s birth certificate, without having to adopt their child.  However, these rules vary from state to state, and some states do not permit gestational surrogacy. 

Traditional gestational surrogates are inseminated with the sperm of the intended father, or with donor sperm.  The child that they carry is conceived with their own eggs and is genetically their own and that of the sperm source.  In this situation, the intended mother has to adopt the child after birth.  Individuals and couples will often elect to consider this approach because of the less expensive insemination treatment as compared with in vitro fertilization.  However, because of the legal and psychological complexities surrounding this process, Lane Fertility Institute does not work with these cases. 

Who should consider gestational surrogacy?

Gestational surrogacy may be an option for patients experiencing the following scenarios:

• Difficulty with implantation
• History of recurrent miscarriages
• Absent uterus, but ovaries are still present
• Difficulty carrying a child to viability (the point at which a fetus can survive outside of the mother’s body)

Talk to your physician about specifics regarding your infertility, and applicable success rates.

Should I use a gestational surrogate?

Once the option of a gestational surrogate has been presented by your physician, it is important for you and/or your partner to decide if this is the right option for you.  While this option does provide a means of having a genetic connection with your child, and being involved in both the pregnancy and childbirth, there are many paths to parenthood, and this is only one of them.