June 27th, 2011
Altrui has been hard at work trying to recruit egg donors for such genuinely nice couples who have really been to hell and back trying to start a family, and slowly but surely we are winning. We now have a database of over 300 women who have all shown an interest in how to become a donor or how to help us find donors, and raise awareness that egg donation can be done well and is nothing to be worried about.
But interestingly, although having been in working in fertility for 20 years or so, I really had no idea what the fundamental reasons were why donors were so difficult to find. But having been doing this now for 9 months (the time it takes to go through a pregnancy) I find that I am at the labour stage of Altrui. I’ve had the congratulations (as in a pregnancy), I’ve watched this baby grow and I’ve given it everything I can and nourished it, and now I am in labour. There are so many good reasons for being an egg donor, but also so many reasons why people feel that they can’t or don’t know that they can.
Funnily enough the first real live Altrui baby is due in a couple of week’s time, and he was the one who was ultimately responsible for starting Altrui – finding completely the right match in a donor for the couple. The absolute pleasure that I know will come from seeing this little one arrive in the world after so much heartache and despair will make this all worthwhile and will make the labour of Altrui reason enough to keep pushing ahead. It is now time to bring this child up.
Posted by Alison
May 19th, 2011
“A study of over 400,000 IVF treatment cycles in the UK has found a ’strong association’ between the number of eggs retrieved prior to a woman undergoing IVF and live birth rate. The findings suggest that chances of a live birth increased with the number of eggs collected up to the number of 15, after which it began to decline”.
This study looked at the number of eggs collected from cycles of treatment to the outcome of live births and found that the ideal number of eggs to collect is between 10- 15. This gives the recipient couple the greatest chance of a live birth and a family.
All the Altrui donors who have undergone IVF cycles to date have produced the ideal number of eggs and the donors have not found any problems with producing this number. Each ovary contains about 500,000 eggs and any donation leaves the donor with many more for future children for themselves.
Posted by Alison
March 16th, 2011
For the past 20 years working with hundreds, if not thousands, of people undergoing IVF I have always maintained that stress doesn’t affect the outcome, whether they are using their own or donor eggs. Recent research supports this and has found that there is no correlation between IVF success rates and stress levels, see the article in BioNews.
These studies used various ways of measuring treatment outcome against levels of anxiety or depression. Understandably, stress and anxiety is a state of being for most people going through treatment cycles when they desperately want to achieve a pregnancy. However, the one major factor that has always been in this IVF equation is that medication given during the treatment cycle is designed to override the body’s own hormonal responses with increased doses of synthetic hormones. I believe that it is the combination and cocktail of these drugs, along with the heightened emotions which gives these women the bad time that is so often reported as being stressful.
Stress is not a factor for donors
For egg donors, who are well prepared and not attaching the same degree of emotional investment in the treatment outcome, it is not and should not be the stressful experience so often reported.
Posted by Alison
February 2nd, 2011
In January the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) launched a three month consultation programme which is open to everybody to give their opinion about egg and sperm donation.
You may have read in the press that there is a current debate underway about various aspects of donation, but in particular whether donors should be paid for their donation and, if so, how much and for exactly what. We thought that you might well have an opinion one way or the other about this issue and would therefore like to make your thoughts known to those who are in the position to take your views into account.
The HFEA website can be found at http://www.hfea.gov.uk . If you click on the link “Donating sperm and eggs: have your say” it will take you through to the relevant section where you can find out more about what is currently under review. There are 4 main areas which they are asking about and to participate in the consultation, you need to complete the on-line questionnaire.
We believe that you are definitely the most appropriate people of all to answer these questions, as either donor or recipient you are the ones most affected by the donation process. We would like to encourage you to put your view forwards so that those who make the rules base them on relevant information.
Posted by Alison
January 11th, 2011
It is interesting how often fertility patients themselves end up suggesting ways that others could potentially increase their chances of a successful outcome to IVF. Some of the alternative options may well not have been suggested by clinicians treating them at another unit, as highlighted in the case of the couple who learnt from another patient ground-breaking treatment of using Intralipid to combat the body’s own immune system with amazing results.
For people who have endured many cycles of IVF it might be of interest to look into this before giving up hope. It might in any case be worth bringing to the attention of their clinician in case they can benefit from the help it might potentially offer.
Read the full article in the Daily Telegraph.
Posted by Alison
