Egg donation and sperm donation

Egg and sperm donation is becoming more common in the sphere of reproductive medicine. Nevertheless, there are still many misunderstandings and social and legal complexities.

Egg and sperm donation is becoming more common in the sphere of reproductive medicine. Nevertheless, there are still many misunderstandings and social and legal complexities. Candidates for egg and sperm donorship undergo strict selection, depending on their age, medical history, blood type, physical traits, etc. Often third-party reproduction is the only way for a couple to have children. This technology is in constant development in order to give more possibilities for infertile couples.

Egg donation

Egg donation is an effective way for infertile people to have a baby. This process requires IVF (in vitro fertilization). This means that eggs will be extracted from a woman, fertilized artificially in a lab, and then put into the uterus of the mother or a surrogate mother. There are a number of reasons to use egg donation:

• Woman’s ovaries don’t function properly;
• Woman’s ovaries were surgically removed;
• A woman was born without ovaries;
• A woman has some type of genetic disease;
• A woman is of advanced reproductive age;
• Medications, which stimulate ovaries, are not working, etc.

Statistically, older women have a low chance of having a baby, whether it was a natural conception or in vitro fertilization. However, using fresh donor eggs increases the rates up to 50% for women of any age.

Sperm donation

Donor sperm insemination is an old medical practice. But, when HIV emerged in the 1980’s, only frozen sperm that went through quarantine was allowed for the donor insemination. Sperm donation is required if the future father has medical problems with his semen or reproductive system, such as:

• Absence of sperm;
• Decreased sperm level;
• The produced sperm is of a poor quality;
• Any type of ejaculatory dysfunction;
• A man has genetic diseases, etc.

Pregnancy rates in case of sperm donation are varied. It depends heavily on the age of a woman. The rates can drop also if she has problems with fertility, for instance: problems with the uterus, problems with the ovaries, uterus and/or ovaries were surgically removed, uterus and/or ovaries were absent when the woman was born, the woman suffers from a genetic disease, etc. The level of risk concerning birth defects is the same as that of a natural conception.