Choosing a Donor

Hi ladies!

We are moving along on our DE journey with to the point where we have 2 proven donor candidates to choose from. We are so excited! We need to make a decision by this Monday and we would like some input from you all. Both donors and their families have very good medical histories and both have the physical and personality traits we are looking for. The 2 donors are ages 24 and 26. We feel more connected to one of the donors. However, we feel the other donor would be a good match as well. The deciding factor is which one of the 2 donors may have an edge in fertility. We were able to obtain fertility statistics for both the donors in regards to # of eggs, embryos that were produced for each cycle and the results of these cycles. Here are the stats:

Donor 11160905 has only donated once and it was a recent donation
26 eggs, 2 embryos transferred and the recipient is pregnant with twins

Donor 06230808 has donated 3 times and her last donation was very recent

#1 cycle 24 eggs, 2 transferred, 4 frozen and rec. pregnant with twins.
#2 cyle 28 eggs, 2 transferred, rec. pregnant with a singleton.
#3 cycle was a split cycle between two recipients
recipient #1 8 eggs, 2 transferred and + pregnancy test (very early at this point)
recipient #2 9 eggs, 2 transferred and + initial pregnancy test

Please let us know what you think. What other questions in regards to the donors' fertility should we ask and be concerned with? We need to make our decision by this Monday. All feedback and advice would be greatly appreciated!

Best Regards,
Cathy and Gary

Re: Choosing a Donor

first

how many embryos did the first donor end up having? I know you said two were transferred and the result was twins. Also is this donor planning on donating again?

Message edited 10/30/2010 6:40:19 PM.

Re: Choosing a Donor

Ask about if there were any frozens, what day were they frozen, how many frozen and the grade at frozen. Were they frozen at 3 or 5 day.

Positive pregnant test is fine, but have their been any births. If not, are any of the recipients past the 12 weeks.

Good luck.

Message edited 10/30/2010 6:54:17 PM.

Re: Choosing a Donor

Hi gsgirls1,

Thanks for responding and for some good questions. All cycles by both donors have resulted in pregnancies which are still ongoing, but no births as of yet. I will have to ask how far along they are, but I believe that at least the first recipient of each donor is beyond 12 weeks and perhaps as many as 2 recipients of donor #2 are beyond that mark. If by chance these pregnancies dont go full term, is that more attributable to the donor or the recipient? Thanks!

Posted by gsgirls1

Ask about if there were any frozens, what day were they frozen, how many frozen and the grade at frozen. Were they frozen at 3 or 5 day.

Positive pregnant test is fine, but have their been any births. If not, are any of the recipients past the 12 weeks.

Good luck.

Re: Choosing a Donor

Usually, if goes past 12 weeks embies were pretty good. Not to say there aren't chromosonal problems past 12 weeks. If after 12 weeks MC, it could be chromosonal or recipient had some undetected problems (immune, incompetent cervix and a multitude of other things)

THe reason I mentioned getting past 12 weeks is it is a good indicator that embies are good quality....developing normally.

Message edited 10/31/2010 4:22:22 PM.

Re: Choosing a Donor

Thanks to everyone for their responses and well wishes! I have another question in regards to selecting our donor. How often should a donor cycle? The reason I ask is that one of our potential donors has cycled 3 times and it would appear that this has occurred within the last 9 months since all 3 recipients are pregnant and none of them have come to full term as of yet. She is to cycle again this December which would be her 4th cycle. Is it possible that the donor is cycling too often and would this have negative consequences for # of eggs, quality of eggs, etc produced for our cycle ? Should donors cycle every month or every 2 or 3 months? Is this typical and I am worrying needlessly? I dont know if this would also have negative health consequences for the donor herself. Thanks everyone!

Re: Choosing a Donor

Personally, I would like a proven donor but I have a problem with a donor cycling so much.

Most clinics will limit the donor. Not sure what the limit is.

The great thing is she is proven, the bad thing is she is proven KWIM?

I don't think it will impact the egg quality but that seems to be a lot of cycling in a short period of time.

Re: Choosing a Donor

Not sure what KWIM stands for?

Re: Choosing a Donor

Re: Choosing a Donor

I had no idea what that meant. lol. Thanks.

Re: Choosing a Donor

This is the response I received from the clinic when I raised this concern:

The physicians have cleared the donor you selected to move forward at this time. Each donor is evaluated individually--we don't want to harm any donor and we don't want to jeopardize your pregnancy quest. Ethics and standards are at the core of all medical decisions. Jill can answer your medical questions perhaps more specifically regarding donor cycling. We follow the guidelines of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and don't allow donors to cycle more than six times.

What do you think?

Re: Choosing a Donor

yeah, 6 times is the standard for donors donating. I personally have no idea if stimming too much in one year would hurt her egg quality or quantity.

To me proven meant that the donor knew what to do and did it right. It does not guarantee your success. Or that you will get the same number of eggs etc....

I would find out how many frozen they got, but again that could be a privacy issue as now you have another party involved in the embryo's. You want back up when you do a single cycle, just in case. Though again...no guarantees you'll get frozen because others did in past cycles.

I mean both are proven...so either one looks good. Obviously you are leaning toward the one that donated 3 times already. I probably would go for the younger one.

Wish you best of luck on this journey.