Ovum donation makes the miracle of life possible for women who otherwise could not have children.
The donor delivers her ova (eggs) which will be brought together with spermatozoa, and the embryos resulting from this will be transferred to the receptor woman, who will thus fulfil her wish thanks to the anonymous and unselfish help of another woman.
Four groups of women are candidates for the ovum donation programme:
1. Women with ovarian failure without spontaneous menstruations due to the menopause, early ovarian failure or ovarian surgery.
Primary ovarian failure is considered to be when menstruation does not appear during puberty, and premature ovarian failure is when the ovary does not function before 40 years of age, with menstruations that begin to be irregular until they end up disappearing. Among the causes of this are hereditary factors, having suffered infectious complaints, having undergone chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc.
2. Women whose ovaries function but who cannot use their own ovaries, either because of the low quality of these, or due to hereditary transmissible diseases that cannot be detected by Preimplantational Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) techniques. It is therefore advisable to carry out pre-conception counselling to deduce the possibilities of transmission to the descendents of autosomal or chromosomal diseases, or those related to sex such as haemophilia.
3. Women with repeated failure with in vitro fertilisation:
• Low responders: who do not respond to ovarian stimulation.
• Repeated fertilisation failure with ICSI.
• Repeated failure on implantation of embryos (repeated gestation failure).
4. Other cases where it is advisable to receive donated ovum are when the woman’s ovaries are inaccessible to obtain oocytes, if she has had repeated abortions or miscarriages, if chromosome alterations are observed in the woman or the embryos, if the woman is over 40 years of age with a probability of very reduced gestation or a high risk of Down Syndrome,…
What must women or couples who wish to be oocyte receptors provide?
• Prior medical and gynaecological record.
• Report on previous treatments in other centres.
• Up-to-date serological test results for hepatitis B and C, syphilis and AIDS, for both partners.
• Blood and RH groups of both partners.
Fill in and sign the request and informed consent for in-vitro fertilisation with donated oocytes.