DE Questions

After several failed IUI/IVF attempts, DH and I have decided to move on to Donor Egg. Does anyone have any experience with DE at either Cornell or LIIVF (or any other clinic in NY / Long Island area)? I would like to know the process, cost, wait period, and your overall experience with the clinic. Any information will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Re: DE Questions

I'm sorry I dont have any input but I wanted to send you a ton of I wish you all the best of luck!!! You're taking a step in the right direction!!

Re: DE Questions

Yes, I am doing DE right now with Cornell and I researched a lot. I'm in the middle of waiting to be matched. Which I am praying could be any day now.

I have a lot of info and I promise to come back, my friend that is visiting for the weekend is about to arrive at my house any second and so much into to tell you.

BA

Re: DE Questions

OK, back.

So there are lots to think about with DE.

1) Do you want to do a shared or a single cycle? A shared cycle is what is sounds like, you share the cycle with another couple. Shared cycles are also cheaper, but not all places will do it. Most programs give you a promise of 6 or more eggs. So if the donor doesn't produce 12 or more eggs you will be canceled if you are the 2nd recipient (I know at Cornell the longer person on the wait list is the primary)

2) Agency or in house donor pool? You will have more control if you use an agency. you choose your donor and it can be faster, but you will pay more with an agency. In-house donor pools - you have less control over your donor. You usually do not see an adult photo (thought you usually see a baby photo) and there is a longer wait. However, its very difficult to choose a donor and clinics have more experience in matching etc... To be honest, most people I know who have used an agency have said its a nightmare. Its just one more party in the way. But, the people who use agencies wanted future contact with the donor etc...

3) You need to decide if you want to go to the best (which means travel) or only stay on LI/NYC. SDFC (San Diego) is the best at 80% success rate and ORM (Oregon) has 77% success rate.

We chose Cornell because they do shared cycles and they take our insurance (Oxford), so my side will run through insurance. But, their SART success rate is only 50%. That bothered me for a while until I looked further into it and found that 1) they allow donor to be sisters or 1st cousins up to the age of 41 (no other clinic allows this), 2) they primarily do shared cycle (which lowers their success rates) 3) they will only transfer 2 emby's max for 3DT (some clinics with higher success rates will transfer more and thus up their success rates) and 4) most people that end up at Cornell are usually the hardest cases and thus people may have problems that prevent them from getting pg (ie, problem with uterine lining thickness etc...).

Our thoughts about shared cycles was that if it doesn't work the first time out (which sometimes doesn't) then if we do another one, we only spent in the end what a single cycle would have cost. But, if it works, then we've saved about $18k.

Their wait time is 6-12 month, but they have been matching ppl within 5 months lately. I guess with the economy more people are looking to make money by donating eggs. They only recruit college students. Their donors get paid $8k.

There are other options on LI, like you said LI-IVF and also Dr. Braverman. Though he only uses agencies, but he has a select few agencies he trust and will provide that list to you. But, he only does single cycles. I would suggest consulting with him before LI-IVF.

I know NYU and RMANY both have DE programs but I didn't look into them because I love Cornell and trust them.

I would suggest going to IVFconnections.com and under IVF/Special IVF Prodedures/ Donor Eggs you will find ppl from all over the country doing DE. You'll find me over there on the Cornell thread. Its good to read about people who are cycling and there are a ton of threads by month too.

One more thing to think about, do not go into this counting on frozen emby's at the of the day. You could be setting yourself up for a big disappointment. Because many times you wont get them no matter what you do. I have seen many do a single cycle and get 2 emby's only (no frozen) and I have seen shared cycles end up with 7 frozen eggs. And mostly the cycles that have failed, end up having a good reason for the failure. For example, one girl had a bad lining (would not get thicker than 6) and another had a uterine polyp that had to be removed (but didn't know it when she cycled).

One big thing in Cornell's favor. One person had done a shared cycle. Ended up with 1 emby that was only 4 celled. The other recipient had similar situation. It was obviously the eggs. So, they are giving her a redue on them.

I am sorry this got so long. I can go on and on....

Re: DE Questions

I can't help you with the clinics in your area, but I just did a donor egg cycle this summer. So if you have any questions about that I can help. I did a shared cycle. My RE has a donor pool and we picked from there. Luckily the donor I picked already had one match so as soon as I chose her the balls were rolling. As soon as we went the donor egg route I had to do a mock cycle to see how my lining responded to the DelEstrogen and then I had to do a mock embryo transfer on another cycle. We started all the mock cycles in March and April and we picked the donor in May. We would have started the DE cycle in June but the donor couldn't start until July. She produced 20 eggs so we both got 10. Out of the 10 7 fertilized, by day 2 one died and 3 were excellent and the rest had some fragmentation. We did a 3dt and transfered 2 embryos. And none made it to freeze. Unfortunatly it didn't work. And hopefully going to try again with a different donor next summer. Luckily my insurance covered some of the costs, where many insurances do not. Out of pocket we had to pay about $10,000. If we didn't have insurance it would have been well over $20,000!!! My RE offers a shared risk program were depending which option you pick for one cost you can get 6 cycles and if you don't have a live birth you get a 100 percent refund. I would have loved to do that but the cheapest option was $35,000 and it would have been a 1:3 cycle were the eggs are shared 3 ways!! We just don't have the money to pay for that, although I am regretting our choice since our cycle didn't work. Anyway,, sorry for rambling on, but if you have any questions just let me know.

Message edited 9/26/2009 2:37:12 PM.

Re: DE Questions

OK, thinking about this some more. Currently frozen donor eggs are being researched for future use. Eventually all DE programs will probably do this. Which in my opinion will be so wonderful. It will basically work like sperm banks. The eggs are there waiting, you just have to choose your donor and go. You don't have to worry about waiting on another person, don't have to sync your cycle with anyone else, screening will already have been done and approved and it will be much more affordable.

SIRM is supposed to be working on this now and last I heard their Frozen Donor Egg bank was supposed to be up and running in January. And they were going to be testing all eggs with CGH. They are also using vitrification and will thaw one egg at a time. You will be guaranteed an egg, so if the one doesn't thaw correctly they will give you another.

Dr. Zhang at NHF in NYC is doing frozen DE bank now. His success rate is not very high and the donor pool is limited. I have met one person doing it and both her cycles had failed. But, its $10k for 4 eggs. Not sure if that includes the transfer or not. It was actually cheaper last year when I looked into it. I had personally decided that frozen wasn't where it needs to be yet and think fresh is the way to go today.

However, there are some clinics (one particular in Georgia) that are conducting research on this and I think if you participate its free or very low costs. I know a couple of people who are in research programs for frozen DE's and are pg. So, it does work and they are getting better success rates.

Actually, Cornell is also doing research on this and I actually know another person who was just asked to do this and her wait time was only 2 months.

Just something else to think about if you want to save money.

The only reason I'm not doing research is because I have a t-shaped uterus and they wont do research on anyone with uterine abnormalities.

Re: DE Questions

Thank you all so very much for your kind words and wonderful information. I just came back home today, and saw all the replies. I am just so thankful for your kindness words and answering my questions.

Message edited 9/28/2009 1:37:51 AM.

Re: DE Questions

hi!

i don't know anything about donor eggs, however, a very close friend of the family just did IVF witha donoro egg and she is going to have her baby this week!

She went to my doctor, Dr. Avner Hershlag, at Center for Human Reproduction (North Shore) and she loved him. i love him too - he's been great so far!

he is the head of the program - def give him a ring!

good luck!

Re: DE Questions

Re: DE Questions

Posted by daisy32

Posted by smp123

hi!

i don't know anything about donor eggs, however, a very close friend of the family just did IVF witha donoro egg and she is going to have her baby this week!

She went to my doctor, Dr. Avner Hershlag, at Center for Human Reproduction (North Shore) and she loved him. i love him too - he's been great so far!

he is the head of the program - def give him a ring!

good luck!

Ahhh I love happy endings like this!!! Congratulations to your friend!!!!!