Here, at Santa Monica Fertility Center, we have developed an internal egg donation program to support patients whose journey to parenthood may need to include using donor eggs. While using an egg donor and a surrogate is a popular option for gay men to become parents, there are also many reasons why women turn to egg donation to achieve pregnancy. We successfully work with patients who:
We offer treatment with both fresh and frozen donor eggs and maintain an inhouse, online egg donor database where you can view profiles of our available donors. During our complimentary informational phone call Dr Jain will discuss your individual circumstances and provide the best treatment recommendation based on your situation as well as your fertility goals.
Our Egg Donor database provides insight into the donors we are currently working with – donating both fresh and frozen eggs. Each profile features not only adult and childhood photos of the donor, but also lists significant medical history and information about immediate family. Our egg donors have an opportunity to tell you about themselves in their own words too; who they are as a person, what was it like growing up in their family, what passions, talents, likes and dislikes they may have and why they decided that donating their eggs was for them.
Although we update our database on a regular basis, we are always speaking to and screening new potential donors. Choosing an egg donor may not be a straightforward process; if you don’t see anyone you feel might be right for you, please contact our egg donation coordinators. We build strong relationships with our donors, get to know them well and – through our free matching service – we’re here to help find the best match for you.
Using fresh donor eggs means that we fertilize the eggs harvested from the donor on the day of retrieval. Once you decide between using fresh or frozen donor eggs and choose your egg donor, our medical team will work with you and the donor to schedule and create cycle calendar. This will outline the exact timing for both you and your egg donor to start taking relevant, prescribed medication and will provide an approximate date of egg retrieval.
Dr Jain will be able to discuss the difference between using fresh or frozen sperm. If fresh sperm is being used for fertilization, your nurse will coordinate an appointment for the day of donor egg retrieval. If the use of frozen sperm is approved, we will need the sperm (your partner’s or donor’s) to get to our clinic at least 1 day before the procedure of donor egg retrieval. Once fertilized, we leave the eggs to grow into embryos for 3 or 5 days and they are ready for a transfer into the intended mother’s or surrogate’s uterus. Alternatively, we can freeze the embryos at this point for transfer at a later stage. Live birth rate is comparable in both fresh and frozen embryo transfer, at approximately 70% per embryo transfer using fresh donor eggs.
Using frozen donor eggs is an alternative to fresh egg donation; because we have already retrieved and frozen the eggs, these are available for use as soon as the recipient (the intended mother or a surrogate) is ready. Although live birth rate using frozen donor eggs is slightly lower compared to fresh egg donor cycles, at 55-60% per embryo transfer, this may sometimes be a more financially accessible option and we have seen great outcomes for our patients using frozen donor eggs. You can view our donors who have frozen eggs available in our Donor Egg Bank; we identify them by adding ‘frozen’ on their profile.
If you would like more information on using donor eggs and our egg donation program, or are ready to begin your journey to parenthood, we are here for you. Please contact us or call to speak to our egg donation coordinator on 310 566 1470