What Are Egg Donor Success Rates and What Factors Influence Success?

All future parents want to find the donor eggs with the highest probability of success. Several donor egg banks advertise great success rates, but the rate can be misleading. As different facilities measure success in different ways those measurements can skew the numbers so that you’ll expect a higher chance of pregnancy with your first IVF cycle. Future parents should understand exactly what egg donor success rates mean, so they can ask the right questions with the egg bank they want to work with. It’s also essential to know what influences the likelihood of a successful pregnancy with donor eggs. Such as the importance of retrieving and storing high-quality donor eggs. 

Keep reading to get the donor egg success rate information you need to choose the right facility to source your donor eggs.

 

 

What Do Clinics Mean By Egg Donor Success Rates?

Donor egg banks display success rates in different ways. It’s important to be informed about the numbers and read them properly, as some numbers might be misleading.

When searching for the egg banks with the highest success rates, ask the following questions to make sure you get the most accurate picture of “success” as possible:

• Is percent success based on per ova (egg) or cumulative from multiple IVF treatments?
• Is success rate data filtered by a certain time frame, clinic, or country?
• Is success defined as the clinical pregnancy rate or just based on elevated hormones that indicate a fertilized egg has implanted in the uterine lining and a placenta is developing (otherwise known as a positive HCG test)?

If an egg bank cannot answer these questions, or the answers are skewed to distort how successful future parents will be when using eggs from that particular egg bank. We suggest considering an egg bank that provides more transparency about their data and how they measure success.

 

What Influences Donor Eggs Success Rates?

A variety of factors can influence egg donor success rates. 

 

1. Donor Health Can Impact Egg Donor Success Rates

Every donor bank has different criteria for qualifying potential donors, but in general, your egg bank should screen potential donors based on at least the following:

• Age: The recommended age range for donors is no younger than 18 and no older than 31. This is to dispel any legal issues and to make sure donors are young enough to meet biological fertility requirements.
• Medical History: Donors should be able to give a detailed medical history of family members up to their biological grandparents.
• Mental Health History: Potential donors should be in good psychological standing when applying to donate. Some facilities will deny potential donors for having a family history of inheritable mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
• Genetic Abnormalities: Egg banks should perform egg donor genetic screenings to determine whether potential donors carry genetic mutations that can lead to disease. This way Intended Parents can be matched with sperm donors who do not carry any of the same mutations.
• Substance Use: Just about all egg banks require that donors not be smoking, drinking, or using any recreational drugs when they’re donating. Some egg banks require that donors have abstained from substances for at least 12 months. While others want donors that have never regularly consumed substances.
• Weight: Donors must have a healthy BMI. Egg donation is an elective procedure in which twilight sedation is used and requires a BMI within the range. This is for the safety of the donor as well as the clinical staff.

 

All of these requirements ensure that donors are healthy enough, both physically and mentally, to produce several equally healthy eggs. If egg banks didn’t perform these screenings, donors may underproduce eggs, donate eggs with potential genetic abnormalities that can manifest in an future child, or produce eggs that are not healthy in general.

Other egg banks have more strict requirements. For example, some clinics require donors to have pursued post-secondary education, submit a pap smear, make sure all tattoos are older than six months, have never been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons, and do not take antidepressants or antianxiety medication. These are more personalized preferences and can vary dramatically between clinics.

You should be able to ask clinics and egg banks openly about how they source donor eggs, their requirements to become an egg donor, and what kind of testing they perform to ensure high-quality eggs.

 

2. Recipient Health Also Contributes To Success Rates

There are also certain criteria that help determine whether a person is a good candidate for receiving donor eggs. Some factors are within your control, so make a plan to prepare your body to receive donor eggs. 

Aspects that influence the success rates of IVF treatment include:

• Age (recipients over 37 may have increased difficulty sustaining a pregnancy)
• Conditions such as fibroid tumors, ovarian dysfunction, abnormal hormone levels, and uterine abnormalities
• Use of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances before and during IVF treatments

 

3. Fresh Eggs Vs Frozen Eggs: Differences In Donor Egg Survival Rates

A common question surrounding egg donor success rates is whether using fresh or frozen eggs impacts the likelihood of a successful pregnancy. The answer depends on how well an egg is preserved to be thawed and used at a later date. 

The main factor that causes issues with egg freezing is how liquid in the cells reacts to being cooled. Up until recently, donor eggs were frozen slowly, which posed two major problems. The first is that slow freezing allows ice structures to form inside the egg cells. The structures are very sharp and will shred cell membranes. The second problem is that as water in the cells slowly turns to ice. It expands in volume, rupturing and killing the cells. 

To avoid these problems, fertility specialists developed a preservation method called vitrification. During vitrification, eggs are exposed to cryoprotectants, a substance used to protect biological tissue from damage due to freezing. Eggs are then moved into tiny storage units, usually straws. Finally, the straws are cooled as fast as possible, which causes the donor eggs to also freeze by thousands of degrees per minute.

Through rapid cooling, there isn’t enough time for ice to form on the eggs before they’re completely frozen. This contributes to egg survival rates.

As long as a facility correctly preserves donor eggs and maintains the proper temperatures while eggs are in storage, there isn’t a significant difference between using fresh and frozen eggs.

 

Poor Shipping Practices Lower Sperm and Egg Donor Success Rates

Many clinics and individuals that source eggs from donor banks often overlook how important proper shipping is to donor egg survival. Maintaining low container temperatures for egg storage is crucial, as eggs that are prematurely warmed quickly become unviable for IVF.

Many egg banks outsource their shipping to third-party carriers. This increases the likelihood that shipping containers are transferred and held up at distribution centers. Donor eggs can quickly warm with even a slight temperature variation, which can occur at any transfer point. 

If a shipping carrier makes even one mistake during transfer, intended parents must go through the process of choosing donor eggs all over again.

 

 

Final Word On Egg Donor Success Rates

When searching for an egg bank, it’s essential to ask the right questions. Its crucial to understand how the success rate may vary based on how it’s reported. To ensure you receive the highest quality of donor eggs, investigate your chosen egg bank. See how they source, store, and ship gametes, as well as how much of the process they outsource to third parties. 

At The World Egg And Sperm Bank, we’re transparent about our egg donor success rates, which include a 92.1% donor egg survival rate and a 58.2% successful clinical pregnancy rate per donor egg. This pregnancy rate is from a single thawed cohort (group of 6-8 mature donor eggs). Not from a mix of several cohorts or rounds of IVF.

We’re also transparent about our vitrification and shipping practices, which our experienced staff perform in-house. You can rest assured that all preserved eggs are transported directly from our facility in Scottsdale, Arizona to your fertility clinic. Your eggs will also be accompanied with well-documented information on your donor eggs’ transportation history.

If you’re looking for an egg bank you can trust, contact The World Egg And Sperm Bank for more information or start looking for an egg donor.

 

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