As any woman trying to conceive knows only too well, time is of the essence, with the first question at a consultation usually being, “how long will it be until I am pregnant?!’
For those women who are unable to use their own eggs, the pressure of time becomes even heavier, as more often than not, they will have tried to conceive using their own eggs before going down the donor path. With stories of long waiting lists for donor eggs, we wanted to understand in more detail how long the IVF process takes using a donor egg, so we can help people answer the question “How long will it be until I am pregnant?!’”
We turned to the team at the Lister Fertility Clinic to help us understand how the process of egg donation, and how long it takes until you get to take a pregnancy test.
IVFB: Before we get in to detail of the stages of IVF with an egg donor, can you tell us an overview, how long the whole process will take, from start to pregnancy test?
LFC: Realistically 3 months. Come in for a consultation with a Consultant which is closely followed by counselling and a meeting with the OD (ovum donation) Team. If a patient decided to join the programme, we will give them a matching form and book a CMV test. The OD team will then offer the donor to the recipient who has 1-2 days to accept or reject the donor. If they accept the donor then we arrange payment and shipment of the eggs from the egg bank.
2 -3 weeks later the donor eggs arrive and the lab team will contact the recipient to confirm they’ve arrived. At this time our OD Nurse will email the recipient to arrange the treatment plan. The timescale for the next part depends on whether the recipient has a natural cycle or medicated cycle. For the purposes of this journey, we will assume a natural cycle.
Stage 2 – assuming a natural cycle, when the recipients period starts we will book them in for a first scan, then during a 2-week period they will have approximately three more scans. They will be given an injection to trigger ovulation and then start progesterone support prior to embryo transfer.
After the embryo transfer the recipient continues the progesterone medication as this supports the endometrium and potential pregnancy. A pregnancy test can be done two weeks after the embryo transfer. The progesterone medication continues until 12 weeks of pregnancy.
How soon can you have an initial consultation to discuss your options, medical history, and any necessary tests or evaluations?
There is no waiting time to get an appointment. Patients can usually complete all of these steps within a week. The decisions to go ahead with treatment can be made on the day with the consultant.
Once you have had your initial consultation, is there a long wait for test results before you move on to donor selection? Usually results come back in 1-2 weeks. During this time, we arrange counselling and a meeting with our OD team.
What happens once you get to the donor selection stage?
We send the donor profile via email to the recipient to consider, and ask them to let us know their decision in 1-2 days.
Once you have selected a suitable donor, is there a long waiting period?
If it is a fresh donor, the embryo transfer can happen within 6 weeks approximately, as the synchronisation can be usually 2-3 weeks before the donor stimulation starts for 2 weeks and embryo transfer around 5 days after the egg collection.
If it’s frozen donor eggs then the treatment can be completed within 3 – 4 weeks depending if the recipient is doing a natural or medicated cycle to make sure the endometrium is ready for an embryo transfer. The eggs will be thawed and fertilised and embryo culture will be for 5 -6 days before embryo transfer can done. .
When a donor has been found, can you talk us through the synchronization of the menstrual cycles of the donor and the recipient before the embryo transfer?
For the frozen donor egg programme we can plan treatment with the recipients natural cycle or as a medication cycle. So the embryo transfer will be around 3 weeks after the recipient’s period started.
For fresh donor eggs cycle, we synchronise the donor and the recipient’s periods, this can take 4-6 weeks before the embryo transfer.
How long does the synchronisation take?
Usually 2 weeks as we use the contraceptive pill to ease this process.
What happens during the ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval stage? How long does this process take?
Usually 14-16 days from starting stimulation to egg collection.
How long does the fertilisation and embryo development take?
Embryos are cultured in the lab for 5-6 days.
The last stage is embryo transfer and the wait to find out if you are pregnant. How long might this take?
Pregnancy tests should be performed 10 days after embryo transfer.
If you would like any further information about the egg donation process, you can either drop the team at the Lister Fertility Clinic a line, or get in touch with us here at info@ivfbabble.com.
How the Lister Clinic can help you conceive through its egg sharing scheme
