For female patients who have no viable eggs at all, or male patients who have no
sperm, the option of egg or sperm donation offers a chance to still have a child
of their own.
Egg donation
Because of the intense hormone treatment required to collect eggs, egg donation
is a serious step for anyone to consider. Sometimes donors come from the community
- women who have a family of their own and wish to share that joy with another.
More often, the donor is known to the recipient - a friend, sister, or cousin. In
either case, Bloom IVF requires that the donor and recipient couple undergo a process
of implications counselling before the procedure begins.
The process begins by synchronising the menstrual cycles of the donor and recipient.
The donor then undergoes a cycle of ovarian stimulation with the aim of producing
as many eggs as possible. As the donor reaches the point of ovulation, the recipient
begins taking estrogen and progesterone to prepare the lining of her uterus (similar
to a frozen cycle).
The eggs are collected and fertilised with sperm from the recipient's partner. Resulting
embryos are observed and the best chosen for transfer. Any other viable embryos
are frozen for later attempts.
Find out more about egg donation at Bloom IVF and read our informal guide
to finding an egg donor.
Sperm donation Bloom IVF does not accept anonymous sperm donors. All donors must be known to the
recipients; whether you've known them all your life or recruited them through a
newspaper advertisement is not important - they just can't be anonymous. This is
because Bloom IVF believe that everyone has the right to know their genetic heritage,
and maintaining anonymity for donors prevents this.
Single women and lesbian couples
Bloom IVF does not refuse treatment to women because of marital status or sexual
orientation. Single women and lesbian couples are welcome and treated with care
and respect.
Because of our policy of not accepting anonymous sperm donors, we require that single
women and lesbian couples who come to us for treatment bring with them their own
sperm donor.
Quarantine
Eggs and sperm, like most human tissues, can carry diseases. Donors should be tested
for disease at the time of donation. A negative test is not conclusive, as some
diseases take many months to show up on blood tests. Therefore, sperm and fertilised
eggs should be held in cryo-storage for six months. At the end of that time, the
donor should be retested. If that test proves negative, the gametes are considered
disease-free.
Some recipients choose to waive the quarantine period for eggs. In this case, Bloom
IVF takes no responsibility for any diseases contracted by the recipient from the
transferred eggs.
By law, however, we must quarantine donated sperm for six months before using it
to fertilise eggs.
Legal considerations
Firstly, it should be noted that it is illegal in Australia to sell sperm or eggs
(or any human tissue). Couples desperate for a child have been known to fall victim
to unscrupulous people offering to sell eggs. While it is considered normal for
recipients to cover their donor's expenses, if anyone you approach asks for payment
beyond expenses, they should be avoided.
The second important point is about parentage. The law considers a woman who gives
birth to a child to be the mother of that child. It further considers the partner
of that woman to be the father of the child. Donors can be assured that they will
be under no legal or financial obligation to the child, though Bloom IVF encourages
recipients to include the donor in the child's life.
